
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 



Chap. ..®.X-l7-"'6-L. 
Shelf -.H3-.- 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



l^SS^f&i 



TUE QUESTION SOLYED: 



AN ANSWBR TO 



KEV. DR. CLARK'S 



^^ Question of the Hour," 



AND HIS OTHER 



ANTI-CATHOLIC PROBLEMS. 



7 

JAMES C. HANNAN. 



^K. 



^%^ 




% 



ALBANY: 

WEED, PAESONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
1870. 






Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

JAMES C. HANNAN, 

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States 
for the Northern District of New York. 



PEEFAOE. 



In submitting this little yolume to the kind 
consideration of the citizens of Albany, the 
simple object of the writer is to take issue with 
many of our Protestant ministers, particularly 
Dr. Clark, of the Dutch Eeformed Church, alias 
" two-steepled '^ church, alias First Reformed 
Church, who has lately been moving the heavens 
and the earth against the Catholics and their 
principles. This self-constituted minister of the 
gospel of peace, if he is sincere in what he utters, 
is one of the most bare-faced peryerters of God^s 
truth, that it has been our misfortune to hear in • 
a long time. At that season of the year when 
the anniversary of the birth of Christ is being 
celebrated by God's people throughout every 
land and clime, when the true ministers of the 
gospel are preaching peace and forgiveness to a 
sin-stricken world, this counterfeit holds forth 
m his Dutch pulpit, and, in the sacred and holy 



IV PREFACE. 

name of God, bears false witness against his 
neighbors, falsifies their motives, perverts history 
against them, and scatters seeds of hate and 
strife in a community where peace and harmony 
should prevail. This ought not to be the case, 
at this age and in this country. "Where is the 
need of plump, well-fed parsons agitating relig- 
ious feuds, and poisoning the minds of their 
hearers against a faith instituted by the Son of 
God — proclaimed by the Evangelists — preached 
by St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Patrick and St. 
Augustine — for which kings had laid down 
their crowns, and martyrs their sacred lives? 
When one contemplates the position that this 
man occupies, as lecturer to a congregation of 
our fellow citizens who wield a large amount of 
influence in commercial circles and the affairs 
of every-day life, and who are too closely con- 
fined to business to investigate Theology, or the 
history of the Christian Church, the faith and 
practices of Catholic people, nor what they have 
accomplished for the kingdom of our Lord, is it 
to be wondered at that they feel a prejudice 
against us ? Under such an influence, it would 
not be surprising if they should break off all 



PREFACE. T 

communication^ socially, with any one bearing 
the name of Catholic, discharge all in their em- 
ploy, as persons dangerous both in the commu- 
nity and family circle, organize native American, 
know-nothing and no-Popery combinations, pull 
down churches, burn cdnvents, tar and feather 
Catholic priests, and defame and insult those 
leading pure and pious lives in religious com- 
munity, as has been done often before in many 
parts of this enlightened republic. It is an old 
dodge of Protestant preachers, when they fail to 
interest their hearers, to ransack the Scriptures 
for quaint and ambiguous texts to preach from, 
and when those become stale, their last resource 
is sure to be a tirade against the Catholic Church, 
and that never fails to keep up the attention. 
Do Protestants imagine that we have no fine 
feelings — no rights — no honesty of purpose — 
that we are a God-forsaken people, ignorant and 
degraded — averse to every sense of right, and 
barely to be tolerated? They must certainly 
think 60, if they believe such men as Clark, 
Darling & Co. It is with this view, therefore, 
that the writer takes upon himself the responsi- 
bility of placing the subject fairly before them, 
1* 



Tl PEEFACE. 

leaving the issue to truth and their sense of 
justice. 

I regret exceedingly, that I haye not the 
manuscripts from which Dr. Clark read his 
Sunday evening lectures, in order that I might 
follow him step by step. These are beyond my 
reach, so he must be met upon general princi- 
ples; besides, it would take more time than I 
could spare from my daily occupation to answer 
all his accusations, as I understand that he 
scarcely lets a Sunday pass, the year round, 
without railing in some way against Catholics. 



TABLE OP CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Protestant writers and speakers — Their influence and char- 
acter— Dr. Clark's position — Catholics not unbelievers 
in revealed religion. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Church of Rome, not the Church of Anti-Christ— 
Heresy and heresiarchs— Defenders of Catholic faith in 
all ages. -_ 

CHAPTER HI. 

Our bishops and priests faithful to Zion — The anniversary 
of Tom Paine --- Catholics and the war of independence 
— False charges against our American bishops — Liberty 
and the Church — Protestantism in league with despot- 
ism—The Church and the civil power — The relative 
political influence of Catholic and Protestant ministers 
over their congregations. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Protestant preachers and the Inquisition — The Inquisition 
and the Waldenses — St. Dominic and the Inquisition — 
Spain and the Inquisition — Pope Sixtus IV and the 
Inquisition— Pascal— Rome the Jewish paradise. 

CHAPTER V. 

Protestant saints —Cruelties of the Hollanders in forcing 
Protesta^ntism into the Netherlands — The Prince of 
Orange and Duke of Alva— The Thirty Years War — Per- 



Vm TABLE OF COKTEKTS. 

seditions in the reign of Henry VIII— Penal code of 
Elizabeth — Ireland drenched with the blood of her chil- 
dren— D'Aubigne and St. Patrick — Desecration of the 
graves of Irish saints. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Landing of the Pilgrims— Puritan Intolerance — The Blue 
Laws— The Quaker persecution — Puritanical hypocrisy 

— Witches — Catholic colony of Maryland — Indian con- 
versions — Protestant intrigue in Maryland. 

CHAPTER VIL 

The blessings of education when accompanied by religion — 
Pagan education — The establishment of the Church — 
Its benign influence on society— The object of education 

— Early training of youth. 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Catholics do not'desire the destruction of the public school 
system — Their objections to it as it now stands — The 
Bible too sacred to be profaned in the school-room — 
Clark on Catholic Ignorance — Bancroft's opinions — 
Catholic and Protestant missions — Protestant knowl- 
edge of the Catholic Church — Why Catholics object to 
reading the Bible in public schools — Catholics not will- 
ing to separate secular and religious education — Dr. 
Clark and the Cincinnati school board — He misrepre- 
sents the Catholic claim— Opinion of Hartford Courant 
and other papers on the school question — Protestant 
ministers exciting the people to tumult — The wrath of 
the Observer man — Dr. Clark as a weather-cock—" Why 
do Catholics come among us ?", 

CHAPTER IX. 

The French Revolution and the Protestant educational sys- 
tem — Education in England before the Reformation — 
The Church in the Middle Ages — Mr. Kay's travels in 
Europe-^ His estimate of Catholic and Protestant educa- 
tion—Statistics—The prosperity of Catholic colleges 
and universities during the Middle Ages — Educatioyi in 
England after the Reformation — Catholics do not hate 
the Bible — Protestant boasting. 



TABLE OF COKTEKTS. ix 

CHAPTER X. 

False accusations against the Church— Sincerity and intel- 
lect seek Rome, hypocrisy and ignorance seek Geneva — 
Comparison between Catholics and Protestants on their 
death-beds — Brilliant eulogies passed on the Church by 
distinguished Protestants — The changing of Protestants 
from one communion to another— Protestant pride. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Dr. Clark's trip to Europe — His visit to the city of the Pon- 
tiffs—Lying statistics of morality by Protestant minis- 
ters — An old dodge — Comparison between l«ne Fathers 
of the Church and the Leaders of the Reformation — 
Vagaries of Protestants — The immorality of the Re- 
formers—The vile practices of the Antinomlans — The 
profligate lives of Protestant monarchs and rulers. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Morality of Catholic iand Protestant countries — Intemper- 
ance —Sir Francis Head compliments Ireland — Fearful 
list of spurious births in Protestant countries— Rev. 
Dr. Halley's opinion of immorality and unbelief in 
Geneva — Mr. Laing's statistics — Contrast between 
Catholic and Protestant cantons of Switzerland — No 
restraint among Protestant youth — Crime on the in- 
crease — Foeticide and infanticide — Divorce laws — Im- 
moralities in and around the halls of* legislation — 
Clerical villians of the Protestant stripe— Protestant 
cupidity — The Dutch the only people capable of tram- 
pling on the cross in the ports of Japan— The hollo wn ess 
of Protestant piety —Predictions of Protestants — Some 
hope of Dr. Clark's conversion. 



Tlie Question Solved. 



CHAP. I. 

Protestant writers and speakers — their inpluence and 
character — dr. clark's position — catholics not unbe- 
lievers in revealed religion. 

THEKE is a class of public speakers, who 
neither impress the nnderstanding, nor 
warm the affections. They may polish off 
a sentence and round a period with much 
eloquence, but watch them closely and you 
cannot fail to discover considerable strain- 
ing after popularity. In seeking reputation 
in this way, more especially when they 
undertake to discuss the Catholic question, 
their love of display carries them so far 
beyond themselves, that they forget all 
their obligations to truth. Their concep- 
tions of common sense are at times so low, 
that they seem to lose the proper use of 



12 ' THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

their faculties. Instead of bread, they give 
us a stone ; and for a fish, they hand ns 
a serpent. By their much talking, they 
remind one of the citizens of Plato' s com- 
monwealth — capable of controlling every 
thing, but performing nothing. Their work 
is done like their preaching — on paper. 
To this class Dr. Clark properly belongs. 
Take Protestant ministers generally, and 
their logic, not to mention their theology, 
is the flimsiest in existence. Their preach- 
ing is a mixture of Christianity, infidelity, 
and sophistry. Unscrupulous in their at- 
tacks against the Church of Christ, they 
show a vindictive spirit akin to the arch 
enemy of souls. Nothing is right but 
what they dictate, and nothing true but 
what tallies with their narrow, perverted 
notions. If you speak of a holy office in 
God's Church, which tends to soothe and 
comfort the sinner, they shout with holy 
horror, ' ' Popish invention ; false doctrine, ' ' 
etc. If a Catholic artist, full of faith and 
devotion to his church, transfers to the 



THE QUESTlOiq- SOLVED. 13 

canvas his conception of some religious 
idea, or historic event, he is hounded down 
as an enemy to moral instruction, and con- 
tributor to idolatry ; while the gross con- 
ceptions of Greece and Pagan Rome, or the 
more modern work of the great unknown — 
the '' Cardiff Giant," is lauded to the skies. 
They are so accustomed to look upon 
things which we hold to be true and edify- 
ing, through a distorted vision, that they 
can hardly distinguish a prism of light and 
shade from a lump of charcoal. The beau- 
ties of Catholic worship, the grandeur 
of Catholic architecture, the magnificence 
of Catholic painting and Catholic music, 
are to them blemishes, useless and unbe- 
coming, because above their capacities. 
They remind me of the man who got angry 
at the Creator, because in some parts of 
the heavens he placed more stars than in 
others. If a poor Catholic should excel 
his feUows in virtue and holiness,- they will 
attribute his devotion, not to the grace of 
God, working in his soul, but to some 



14 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 

superstitions or selfisli motive. In this 
way, and by snch teaching, Protestants 
grow np like poisonons weeds, with the 
spirit of evil continnally gnawing at their 
hearts ; while their ministers, with tongnes 
of serpents, keep on distilling venom and 
malice from Snnday to Snnday, which they 
infuse into the minds of their hearers, thns 
fostering hatred toward a class of their 
fellow-citizens, who never did them wrong. 
They grudge us the sun by day, and the 
moon by night, and would poison the very 
air we breathe, if they had the power, and 
it would not injure themselves. Dioclesian 
and Tiberius possessed this spirit; such 
was the conduct of Cain when he killed 
his brother; and wicked men in all ages 
have cherished such feelings. Many even 
went so far as to make goblets of the 
skulls of their victims (who were their 
supposed enemies), out of which they be- 
came drunk with revenge, as did the mon- 
ster Albonus. 
Now, the great oracle of the Dutch 



THE QUESTIOIlT SOLVED. 15 

Church would have his people believe 
that Catholics are the enemies of all that 
is good and noble in this life or the life to 
come. This OJiristian teacher is wofuUy 
♦ ignorant as regards this subject, or else a 
wicked perverter of what he knows to be 
true. We cannot excuse him on the plea 
©f ignorance, for, by his style of preach- 
ing, we should judge that he has made the 
short-comings of Catholics a greater study 
than the spiritual necessities of his flock ; 
and, besides, how could a Protestant D. D. 
be ignorant of the faith and practice of 
Christian sects ? Did he not study his Bible 
in the common schools, those great foun- 
tains of inspiration, the bulwarks of the 
State and the milestones on the high road 
to liberty and progress ? We must, there- 
fore, accuse him of forgery, black and 
offensive, full of malice, jealousy and re- 
venge. The Catholic Church defines it to 
be a sin against the Holy Ghost to impugn 
the known truth by arguing obstinately 
against points of faith and holy practices, 



16 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

or to prevent the way of our Lord, by 
forging lies against Catholics and slander- 
ing the Church of Christ, as heretics and 
infidels do. 

Dr. Clark, in his preaching, or, more 
properly, prating, reminds one of the han- 
dle of a jug : he is all on one side. He 
claims all the virtues, all the learning, 
wisdom, and progress of the age ; his peo- 
ple are the salt of the earth, and the First 
Church, although it stands in a hollow, he 
places on the top of Mount Zion. Happy 
people ! thrice happy Doctor ! 

I would not be surprised if, some bright 
morning or other, we should see the learned 
Doctor, trumpet in hand, proclaiming aloud 
at the corner of Van Schaack and North 
Pearl streets, ''We are the chosen of Israel, 
the Lord' s anointed ; we love God and our 
neighbor as ourselves ; we are as full of 
intelligence, moral worth, and good will to 
men, as ever we can hold ! Come this way, 
all ye people in search of salvation, and I 
will show you more big I's in this congre- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 17 

gation of ours than you ever saw before ! 
Be careful ! would ye go near the whore of 
Babylon 1 Hearken not to Anti-Christ, or 
the scarlet lady ! Beware of Popery, ' and 
the superstition, ignorance, and idolatry 
of Catholics ! Listen well ! don't you hear 
the old Pope and his seven hundred bish- 
ops forging chains this very instant, to 
bind the American people hand and foot ! 
Keep out of the way of all those Catholic 
priests, although one of them performs 
more ministerial duties in a day than I do 
in a month, and makes more converts from 
Protestantism to Rome in one year, than I 
have from Popery since I received my ordi- 
nation, from a man who never received 
proper authority to ordain me ! Come in 
here, all you staunch nativists, and hear 
me handle the subject of the Bible and 
Common Schools ! Father Ludden has gone 
to Rome, that wicked old city, where the 
people are all as ignorant as stuffed pigs ; 
he will not be here to bring us to an account 

for bad logic and inconsistency in matters 
2* 



18 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

pertaining to tlie public weal ! He took up 
the cudgel once before against four of us. 
Christian giants^ as we are, and, like a 
true Irishman, knocked us clean out of 
time ! So, come in here, I say, and we will 
have a good time by ourselves; we will 
clap our hands together, stuff our people 
with all manner of accusations, rash judg- 
ments, and lies, to sustain our cause, and 
the members of our conventicle will retire 
to their homes, satisfied that a second Paul 
has arisen in the person of J, Rufus W. 
Clark, D. D., once a Congregationalist, 
but now a Reformed Dutch Protestant ! " 

If Rufus W. Clark will stand up in his 
pulpit, like an honest man, and argue out 
the questions which divide Catholics and 
Protestants, in a generous, logical manner, 
throw aside prejudice and ill-will, speak 
respectfully of those who entertain opin- 
ions contrary to his own, and prove that 
the 250,000,000 Catholics are all in the 
wrong, and a handful of Dutch Reformed 
Protestants all in the right, I, for one, will 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 19 

extend to him my most sincere thanks. 
Can he pnt his finger on the first article of 
Christian faith, necessary to salvation, that 
the Roman Catholic disbelieves ? He pro- 
claims to his congregation that the Pope is 
the foe of God, that all Catholics are idol- 
aters, and classes them with atheists, infi- 
dels, and nnbelievers of every shade. Good 
kind and amiable pastor, yon remind me 
of a man who was in the habit of getting 
drunk. Coming to the door of his dwell- 
ing, he wonld stand upon the threshold, 
and seeing his wife sober and industrious, 
attending to her domestic duties, he would 
call out to her, ^'You're drunk;" ''goto 
bed ; " " you ought to be ashamed of your- 
self, you good for nothing;" and if the 
poor thing would reply in justification of 
herself, and point out his sin and folly, he 
would knock her down, and then kick her 
because she fell. 

Again, Protestants, after abusing us and 
taunting us with ignorance, irreligion and 
every other foul epithet, will turn round 



20 THE QUESTIOl^ SOLVED. 

and tell us they did it for our good and 
lasting happiness, and because they love 
our souls. Yes ! they love our souls as 
the wicked young man loved his mother, 
who, on becoming enraged at her, deter- 
mined to do her violence, but ashamed to 
do it in an ungracious manner, he caught 
her in his arms, crying out, ^'Mother, I 
love you; Mother, I love you," and 
squeezed, and squeezed until he broke her 
ribs. I can see how an Infidel or a Free- 
thinker can war against us, but how a man 
claiming to be a minister of Christ can 
accuse us of being hostile to the interests 
of God and man, is more than I can well 
conceive, unless Satan is his master, in- 
stead of Jesus. 

This Evangelical teacher, with a most 
brazen effrontery, proclaims from his pulpit 
that the Catholic has no true faith, but is a 
slavish adherent to what his priest imposes 
upon him ; and he observes no obligation 
save that which corresponds to the slavery, 
degradation and craft of Rome. Let me as- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 21 

sure the good people of the First Reformed 
Church (a title, it seems to me, very much 
out of place at this period of the Christian 
Era) that Catholics are not as ignorant of 
what pertains to their salvation, as their 
pastor would have them believe ; and al- 
though a large number of them do not 
study their Bible as Protestants do, never- 
theless they know the duties of a Christian, 
and should any of them stray away from 
their faith, and pursue a course of sin and 
shame, the fault does not lie at the door of 
our Holy Church, or at the feet of our 
pastors and teachers. 

''Faith is a gift of God, or a supernatural 
quality infused by God into the soul, by 
which we firmly believe all those things 
which he hath in any way revealed to us ; 
and without faith it is impossible to please 
God." This every Catholic child learns as 
soon as he comes to the use of reason. He 
is also taught that faith alone will not save 
him, without good works, and that he must 
observe the precepts of God and His 



22 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

Church. He learns that the Old and New 
Testaments are the works of divine inspi- 
ration, and a precious legacy left to God' s 
Holy Church, full of instruction, replete 
with wisdom and sublime thought. He 
believes also that the Holy and Apos- 
tolic Church and its ministers are the only 
true and reliable interpreters of the sacred 
volume. Every Catholic child is taught to 
believe that there is but one God, who 
created the heavens and the earth, out of 
nothing and by His word only — that He 
created man to his own image and likeness, 
giving him will, memory and understand- 
ing — that the object of man's creation was 
that he might know, love and serve God in 
this life, and be happy with Him in the 
next. He is also required to know that in 
this one God there are three distinct per- 
sons — the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost ; that God the Son, the second per- 
son of the Blessed Trinity, came down from 
heaven, in the person of Jesus Christ, to 
redeem man from the dominion of sin. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 23 

to which he became subject through the 
violation of God' s holy law. The Catholic 
fully believes in the death and resurrection 
of that same Jesus, and that He shall come 
again, at the last day, to judge the world — 
that the good shall possess the Kingdom 
of Heaven, and the wicked be banished for- 
ever from the presence of God. He also 
believes that the Holy Ghost, or the third 
person of the Trinity, is equal with the 
Father and the Son, and that He descended 
upon the Apostles, in the form of tongues 
of fire, to strengthen them to preach the 
Gospel and plant the Church. He be- 
lieves, too, all the articles contained in the 
Apostles' creed, in all the commandments 
of God, and the precepts of His Holy 
Church ; and that the Catholic Church is 
none other than that self-same institution, 
established by the Apostles under the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit. 

Now, if she is not that Church of which 
St. Peter was the visible head, will Dr. 
Clark be kind enough to tell us which is ? 



24 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

What other church has come down to us 
by perpetual succession, if it be not the 
Catholic Church, through which our bish- 
ops, priests, and other holy persons re- 
ceive doctrine, orders, and power to teach 
and perform religious duties, for the edifi- 
cation and spiritual comfort of God' s poor 1 

Catholics love their Church because they 
believe it to be Grod's kingdom on earth, 
and receive with submission whatever she 
proposes to their belief, because she is the 
pillar and ground of truth, and cannot err 
in what she teaches. They know that 
Christ gave the promise to St. Peter, the 
first Pope and Bishop of Rome, that the 
gates of hell should not prevail against His 
Church, that the Holy Ghost should bestow 
on her all truth, and that He himself would 
forever abide with her. 

Ours is not a faith given to speculation 
or to doubt — such a faith is worse than 
none at all. The spirit of speculation in 
matters of religion, is no more to be com- 
pared to that warm, living, active faith of 



THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 25 

Catholics, than the song of ''Jim along 
Josey," is to the Psalms of David! I 
would as soon trust Dagon on the ark of 
Grod, as to trust -the private interpretation 
of the Scriptures to save mj soul. This 
jumbling together of individual notions 
and opinions, and calling it Christianity, 
is as ridiculous as to affirm that a child' s 
kaleidoscope is the meridian sun. But 
Dr. Clark says, we are the foes of Grod, 
enemies of Christianity, and know nothing 
of Christ and His divine attributes. Thank 
you, Reverend Sir, for the high opinion 
you entertain of us ; but look out ! we warn 
you of the wrath to come, when every liar 
shall have his portion in the ''lake that 
burns with brimstone and with fire ! " 
3 



CHAP, II. 

The church of eome, not the church of anti-christ — 
heresy and heresiarchs — defenders of catholic faith 
in all ages. 

TS Dr. Clark in earnest, when he de- 
JL nounces the Church of Rome, as the 
Church of Anti-Christ, or is he only pull- 
ing the wool over the eyes of his congrega- 
tion ? If he was not embarked in the cause 
of the evil one, he never again would put 
on the black gown to uphold error and 
retard the progress of Christ' s Church on 
earth. Let me tell his people that if it 
were not for the Church which he de- 
nounces, in any thing but decent language, 
there would not be a Christian temple in 
the city of Albany to-day. Let me ask the 
members of the '^ First Reformed," if they 
ever studied what the Catholic Church has 
done to uphold the religion of Jesus Christ 
throughout the world, from the day that 
our Blessed Lord triumphed over the 
grave to the present time. 



THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 27 

In tlie earliest age of Christianity, as far 
back even as the days of the Apostles, 
there were proud innovators, who pre- 
tended to reform the infant chnrch. The 
most prominent among these pretenders 
were Simon Magus, Philetus, Menander, 
Hymenus, Mcholaites, Cerinthns and 
Ebion. 

In the second century, the Yalentinian, 
Marican and Carpocratian heresies arose. 
In the third century, Paul, of Samosata, 
was excommunicated for denying the di- 
vinity of Christ, Sabellius was condemned 
for denying three persons in one God, 
Novatus for denying the forgiveness of 
sins, and Manes for inculcating the doc- 
trine of two Deities. 

In the fourth century, arose the Donat- 
ists and the Arians, who denied the divin- 
ity of Christ ; and the Macedonians, who 
opposed that of the Holy Ghost. In the 
fifth century, the N^estorians preached 
against the doctrines of Christ' s divine and 
human nature; and the Eutychians, the 



28 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 

Pelagians and the followers of Yigilantius, 
opposed some of the most vital doctrines 
of the Church. 

In the sixth century, the Church was 
obliged again to go forward and battle 
against infidels, heretics, and wily politi- 
cians. The great St. Benedict, St. Gildas, 
and eight others, not less distinguished, 
confounded and put to flight, by the sword 
of logic and authority, Aschepali, the 
Jacobites, the Tri-theists, and numerous 
others. In this century the Church had to 
contend against the greatest scourge of 
all — the rise and progress of Mahometan- 
ism. In the seventh century, arose the 
Monotholite heretics and the Paulicians ; 
and, in the eighth, the detestable Iconoclasts 
were met and defeated, by the seventh 
general council, as were Felix and Elip- 
hand, who taught errors in the west. 

The ninth century saw the union of many 
heresies, brought about by Claudius of Tu- 
rin, while Grotescale labored hard to estab- 
lish Predestinarianism. It was at this time 



THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 29 

that the G-reek schism originated, and the 
march of the Mussulman carried the sword 
of persecution not only through France 
and Sicily, but into the very city of the 
Pontiffs. The Church, in the tenth century, 
was much distracted by civil factions at 
Rome, as well as by the misconduct of 
many of her most prominent children. 
The eleventh century witnessed another 
schism in the Greek church: the new 
Manicheans turned up in France, and were 
met and subdued, as were their predeces- 
sors, by the great defenders of virtue and 
religion. Again, in the twelfth century, 
heresy seemed to revive in a variety of 
forms, and Mahometanism once more threat- 
ened to destroy Christianity ; but God de- 
fended His Holy Church by some of the 
most illustrious Pontiffs that ever sat in 
the chair of Peter. The great doctors who 
were called to defend the faith were St. 
Bernard, St. Anselm, Peter Lombard, 
Peter, abbott of Clughny ; S. S. Otto, Nor- 
bert, Henry of Upsal, Hugh of Lincoln, 



30 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

William of York, and St. MalacM of Ire- 
land. These holy men buckled on the 
armor of God, and repulsed a prolific 
growth of heresies which sprang up rank 
and defiant, such as those of Marcilius 
of Padua, Arnold of Brescia, Henry of 
Toulouse, Peter Bruise, Peter Waldo, 
the Bogomilians, Albigenses, and other 
branches of the Manichean family. This is 
the corrupt and blood-thirsty brood that 
Dr. Clark undertook to defend a few Sun- 
days ago, before an audience among whom, 
we would venture to assert, there were not 
half a dozen persons who knew any thing 
at all of the true history of these common 
disturbers of the public peace, nor the 
errors which they strove so hard to propa- 
gate. If their object was simply to worship 
Grod in their own way, as the learned Doc- 
tor declares, they might have enjoyed that 
privilege until doomsday, if they could 
live so long, and nobody would interfere 
with them. Instead of this, they wanted 
to obtrude their erroneous opinions upon 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 31 

their neighbors, and traduce the faith of a 
people which was as true as it was holy. 
They became so arrogant and lawless that 
the strong arm of the civil power was at 
last compelled to interfere. We question 
very much if Dr. Clark, himself, knew 
what he was talking about ; for, if he was 
better posted in the science of Christian 
morals, and had any regard for the pure 
life-giving doctrine of salvation, he would 
never attempt to palliate or defend the 
crimes and practices of such red-mouthed 
vilifiers of all that was good and holy, 
true and imperishable in God' s revelation 
to mankind. It is somewhat singular that 
he should revive the almost forgotten sub- 
ject of the Waldenses at this particular 
time. Their history is of little importance 
to the world they disgraced, and few think 
it worth their while to go into any details 
concerning them. They were a fanatical 
sect at best, loose in morals, and subversive 
of the peace and happiness of social life. 
None but a man of evil meaning, who is 



32 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

always on the look-out for some new arrow 
to plnck from Ms qniver of falsehood to 
wound truth in a tender part, would up- 
hold the errors which prudence and justice 
condemned six centuries ago. If the Doc- 
tor had any high regard for his people, he 
would never have introduced the ^'poor 
men of Lyons" to their acquaintance* 
What have the congregation of the First 
Church in common with the '^Humiliati? " 
They believed in auricular confession, the 
Mass, etc. As Dr. Clark does not believe 
in such essentials, he must hold to their 
errors, which would not be at all compli- 
mentary to so large a christian as our 
worthy friend of the two steepled light- 
house. There is not a well-organized Chris- 
tian government on the face of the earth, 
that would tolerate them as they first 
showed themselves in France. We would 
hate to accuse the Doctor of sanctioning the 
proceedings going on daily in Chicago, Indi- 
ana and other parts of our country ; but it 
looks strange, to say the least, for he well 



THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 33 

knows that Peter Waldo and Ms friends 
held it to be a cardinal doctrine, that '^ di- 
vorce was lawful under all circumstances." 

In the thirteenth century Fratricelli and 
Beguardi with other heretics arose, with 
whose gross immoralities no pure mind 
should be made acquainted. In the next 
century the hateful Manichean doctrine 
was upheld by other new sects. The Lol- 
lards sprang up in Germany and the Wick- 
liffites in England, whose abominable errors 
threatened to sap not only religion itself, 
but the foundations of civil society. The 
Church, in the fifteenth century, witnessed 
many errors and dissensions. The Hus- 
sites, Adamites and other remnants of the 
immoral Albigenses, attacked not only the 
Church, but made war against the State 
also. 

But it was reserved for the sixteenth 
century to cap the climax of revolt and 
opposition to the See of Rome. The arch 
reformer Luther sounded the key note of 
rebellion, broke his sacred vows, shook off 



34 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

all authority in matters of faith, pretended 
to unlock a chained Bible, and lo ! heresies 
swarmed like maggots in a putrefying car- 
cass. Out crept Lutherans, Zwinglians, 
Anabaptists, Puritans, Socinians and the 
Family of Love. The haughty monk swore 
destruction to the Church, and to the 
natural mind she stood in great peril ; but 
thanks to the power and promise of Christ, 
the barque of Peter breasted the angry 
waves of error and deceit, which threatened 
to engulf her, and with sails set, colors 
flying and the cross nailed to her mast-head 
she plowed the fierce surges of hate and 
discord, until she anchored safely in the 
haven of peace and love, beneath the 
shelter of the Rock of Ages. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 
tury the sects were in full blast, and, 
though diflering widely in point of doctrine, 
they united under the common name of 
Protestants — their aim and purpose being 
the destruction of the Church. But the 
Lord of Hosts thwarted their designs, and 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 35 

like the builders of the Tower of Babel, 
they were confounded and dismayed. The 
Lutherans divided into Diaphorists and 
Abiaphorists — Calvinists into Gomarists 
and Armenians — and the Angelicans into 
four divisions. These fought among them- 
selves and became cruel and revengeful one 
against the other. Atheism and Infidelity 
raised their defiant crests in the last cen- 
tury, and nowhere did they make such 
progress as in Protestant countries. 

And now we are near the close of the 
nineteenth century, and the names of the 
sects are legion — it would be impossible 
in fact to enumerate them. They remind 
one of the clouds and shadows that flit 
across the sky on an autumnal day — they 
are forever changing and dissolving — what 
is true to-day is false to-morrow. In this 
State alone, there are eighty- seven different 
sects ! What a pious brood ! They are 
but a reflex of what St. John saw in his 
vision, when the fifth angel sounded the 
trumpet. ^'And I saw a star fall from 



86 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

heaven on tlie earth, and there was given 
to him the key of the bottomless pit. And 
the smoke of the pit arose as the smoke of 
a great furnace, and the sun and the air 
were darkened with the smoke of the pit, 
and from the smoke of the pit there came 
out locusts upon the earth. And power 
was given to them as the scorpions of the 
earth have power." 



CHAP. m. 

Our bishops and priests FAITHPUIi TO ZION — THE ANNIVER- 
SARY OF TOM PAINE— CATHOLICS AND THE WAR OF INDEPEND- 
ENCE—FALSE CHARGES AGAINST OUR AMERICAN BISHOPS — 
LIBERTY AND THE CHURCH — PROTESTANTISM IN LEAGUE WITH 
DESPOTISM— THE CHURCH AND THE CIVIL POWE41 — THE RELA- 
TIVE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 
MINISTERS OVER THEIR CONGREGATIONS. 

TELL me, ye defamers of Grod's Holy 
Clinrcli, that lier bishops and priests are 
opposed to hnman liberty! Falsehood, 
black as hell, and ugly as the rotting car- 
cass of Henry YIII ! How dare you tempt 
the Lord our Grod ! But the good Lord is 
merciful and slow to anger, and he permits 
you like tares to grow up with the wheat 
until the harvest. Our bishops and priests 
are not only sentinels on the watch towers 
of Zion, defending the gospel of salvation, 
but in every age from the day that St. 
Peter stood in the hall of Pudens, the Ro- 
man Senator, denouncing the tyranny of 
Rome, and proclaiming mercy and hope to 
the captive and the slave — the same privi- 
leges to the bondman and the free, down to 



38 THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 

tMs very hour, they liave always stood up 
for the rights of man, not as the infidel 
Paine defines them, but as Jesus of ISTazareth 
taught and commanded. 

And here let me say, by way of paren- 
thesis, that the followers and admirers of 
Thomas Paine hold their blasphemous 
anniversaries in that section of liberal 
Christianity from which I understand Dr. 
Clark emanated. Year after year they 
unblushingly inculcate impiety and un- 
belief — making a mockery of Christ and 
His saints — pouring forth soul-destroying 
doctrines like streams of molten lead and 
burning lava. Notwithstanding all this. Dr. 
Clark remains as silent and as dumb as the 
Pyramid of Cheops. Why should he offend 
men of wealth and distinction belonging to 
that organization % It is modern progress that 
inspires such choice spirits, and moreover, 
they have nearly all been educated in the 
common scTiools of New England, where each 
in turn read his Bible and construed its 
meaning to suit his own taste and fancy. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 39 

Let but tlie Catholic Churcli proclaim 
her authority in matters of faith and dis- 
cipline, and the great oracle of the 'Hwo 
steepled church" would awake to life, as 
if struck by a wizard's wand, and in his 
fulminations he would kick seven pulpits 
to pieces, and bang the inwards out of a 
dozen Bibles. 

The accusation that Catholicity promotes 
despotism, as has been alleged by Clark 
& Co., is not only false, but highly criminal. 
Catholics form no mean portion of the 
census of these United States; Catholics 
first discovered this continent and planted 
the cross on its virgin soil. They took an 
active part in the early warfare of the 
country, and no part of Washington's 
army were braver or more enthusiastic in 
casting off the yoke of Gfreat Britain than 
they. 

But Dr. Clark asks, what brought Catho- 
lics here, why did they not go to Mexico 
or South America ? Such a question would 
sound better coming from the lips of an 



40 THE QUESTIOjN" solved. 

ignorant know-notMng, rather than from 
the month of a man having as mnch intel- 
ligence as the Doctor pretends to po&sess. 
Did Greorge Washington and his compat- 
riots, in 1776, ask Lafayette, Pulaski, Count 
de Grasse, Kosciuszko, De Kalb, and the 
brave Commodore John Barry (who was 
appointed by Washington to form the first 
naval fleet in the war of independence, and 
who never struck his colors to a British 
man of war), what brought them here, why 
did they not go to South America or 
Mexico? No! Washington's idea of pat- 
riotism was far different from Dr. Clark's. 
It is well for the cause of American free- 
dom that such men as the hero of the 
North Dutch had no hand in its early 
deliberations. Washington was a soldier, 
a patriot, and an honest man ; Clark is 
neither. This creature of circumstance has 
the hardihood to assert that Catholicism is 
incompatible with republican institutions. 
Does he not know that Catholic republics 
existed long before Columbus discovered 



THE QUESTIOisr SOLYED. 41 

America ? Did he never liear of San 
Marino, founded by a monk more than 
1500 years ago, and the little republic of 
Andorra founded by a bishop in the ninth 
century? The people of these territories 
remain, even to this day, free and independ- 
ent, thoroughly democratic in their prin- 
ciples, well educated, happy, and contented 
in their mountain homes. 

Some of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence were Catholics — they have 
occupied position* of trust in almost every 
department of the government, and formed 
a large proportion of the army and navy. 
Now, will these calumniators of our Catho- 
lic brethren show us one, who proved un- 
faithful to the trust reposed in him? 
Among them all, there could not be found 
one Benedict Arnold. Can Protestants 
say as much? Our late war has given 
additional proofs of the loyalty of our 
bishops, although Dr. Clark asserts they 
are not and cannot be citizens of the Re- 
public, because they owe allegiance to a 
4* 



43 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

foreign power. There never was a grosser 
libel than this ! 'Tis true that onr ecclesi- 
astics do not take an active part in politics, 
and it would be well for Protestant minis- 
ters if they followed their example in this 
regard, for it is my candid belief, that they 
did more to foment strife and discord in 
the body politic, by their political preach- 
ing, than any other class of our citizens. 
The office of the Catholic priest is too 
sacred — his labors too arduous, to allow 
him much time to devote to politics ; but 
in his fealty to the government and to the 
laws he yields to none. A more thorough 
American than the late Archbishop Hughes 
never breathed the air of human liberty— 
and what we claim for him, may be said of 
all our bishops throughout the Republic. 
We cannot do better, perhaps, than give an 
extract from the transactions of the sixth 
provincial council of Baltimore in 1846, 
wherein the assembled bishops officially de- 
clared as follows : 

'^It is unnecessary for us to tell you, 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 43 

brethren, that the kingdom of Christ, of 
which the Bishop of Rome, as successor 
of Peter, has received the keys, is not of 
this world ; and that the obedience due to 
the Yicar of the Saviour is in no way in- 
consistent with your civil allegiance, youl 
social duties as citizens, or your rights as 
men. We can confidently appeal to the 
whole tenor of our instructions, not only 
in our public addresses, but in our most 
confidential communications, and you can 
bear witness that we have always taught 
you to render to Csesar the things which 
are Caesar's, to Grod the things which are 
God's. Be not, then, heedful of the mis- 
representations of foolish men, who, unable 
to combat the evidences of our faith, seek 
to excite unjust prejudice against that au- 
thority which has always proved its firmest 
support. Continue to practice justice and 
charity towards all your fellow-citizens — 
respect the magistrates — observe the laws — 
shun tumult and disorder, as free, and not 
as having liberty as a cloak for malice, but 
as the servants of God." 



44 THE QUESTI02^ 80LVED. 

The bishops of the fifth council of Balti- 
more made a still stronger declaration, in 
an ofiicial letter to the Pope, in answer to 
which the Holy Pontiff expressed his satis- 
faction thus : ^^ Your letter was most pleas- 
ing to us." The extract from that letter 
reads thus : ''They spread doubtful rumors 
against us among the people ; with untir- 
ing efforts, they circulate among the 
ignorant and uninformed, books, which 
calumniate our most holy religion ; they 
leave no means untried to infect with errors 
their Catholic servants ; and ... al- 
though our forefathers poured out their 
blood like water for the defense of our 
liberties against a Protestant oppressor, 
they yet seek to render us, their fellow- 
citizens, suspected by, and odious to the 
government, 'by falsely asserting that we 
are reduced to servitude under the civil 
and political jurisdiction of a foreign 
prince^ namely^ of the Roman Pontiffs and 
that we are therefore unfaithful to the re- 
public 1'^'^ 



THE QUESTION SOLYED. 45 

Did Dr. Clark take any pains to examine 
the subject well, before making such a 
sweeping and savage attack on the allegi- 
ance of our American bishops? It must 
have been a part of malice, and not a want 
of intelligence, that actuated our belligerent 
parson, for no well informed man in our 
day believes that the Pope of Rome claims 
any obedience from his children, scattered 
as they are all over the earth and under all 
forms of government, other than what they 
owe him in spiritual matters. The question 
of papal jurisdiction was long since dis- 
cussed in both houses of the British parlia- 
ment. Mr. Pitt took great pains to investi- 
gate the matter, and if those persons who 
admire Dr. Clark for his honesty, will look 
into Butler's Book of the Church, page 287, 
if they do not come to the conclusion, that 
the worthy pastor is possessed of the spirit 
of lying, they are as bad as he is. Mr. Pitt's 
investigations resulted in this: ^'that the 
Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, or 
any individual of the Church of Rome, can- 



46 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

not absolve or dispense with. Ms Majesty's 
subjects from their oath of allegiance, upon 
any pretext whatsoever," There is not 
a monarchial government in Europe, that 
believes to the contrary of this. How comes 
it then that our brave, intelligent Americans 
of the Protestant stripe, allow themselves to 
be frightened by such, a bugbear, which has 
no existence, save in the addled brains of 
their religious teachers ? If Dr. Franklin, 
when minister to France (and we take it 
that he was as good, as pure and as patri- 
otic as our worthy friend of the '^two- 
steepled church," and his name will be 
cherished as a benefactor of his race long 
after Rufus W. Clark, D. D., shall be buried 
in oblivion and rotted out of memory), had 
such squeamish fears of Rome as our 
modern patriots, would he have solicited 
the Pope's Nuncio to appoint a Catholic 
bishop for America, lest American Catholics 
might be dependent on an English bishop ; 
and recommended his friend and companion 
the Rev. Dr. Carroll, for that position ? 



THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 47 

Protestants are continually accnsing the 
CliurclL of intolerance, and, with a great 
flourish of trumpets, appeal to the Goddess 
of Liberty upon all occasions, especially 
when the See of Rome asserts her authority. 
As freedom from restraint is always agree- 
able to the carnal-minded, audiences ap- 
plaud and accept the gilded bait regardless 
of consequences, never stopping to inquire 
whether their orator speaks truth or false- 
hood. Let me tell such people, that truth 
is only safe and lasting in its effects, in pro- 
portion as it maintains its authority ; for the 
instant it compromises with falsehood it 
becomes hidden and lost to view, and error 
will stalk through the land corrupting the 
heart of man and outraging common sense. 
Christ has always spoken with authority, 
so have the Apostles and their successors. 
If religious truth is left to the caprice of the 
human mind, ungoverned and alone, heresies 
must necessarily arise, which the history of 
our race during the last eighteen centuries 
proves conclusively. Free thought without 



48 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

a governing voice, has sped from one theory 
to another until finally it ended in Panthe- 
ism or Atheism. It is a thing impossible to 
reconcile the various opinions of mankind 
on a single article of faith when it is left an 
open question. The human mind being 
finite and limited in capacity, it cannot 
reason beyond a certain point — then again, 
men have different measures of intellectual 
strength — besides, pride and selfishness are 
too powerful ingredients in the composition 
of our nature, to allow truth at all times its 
natural supremacy. It follows, then, if 
the wisest man cannot penetrate into the 
mysteries of his own being, that, to make 
him a responsible agent, he must have a 
supernatural intelligence bestowed upon 
him, else he is compelled to grope his way 
through the maze of life, unable to get over 
his perplexity. How necessary therefore it 
is for him to have some faithful guide, to 
point out the way that leads to the promised 
land, the realms of truth and happiness, 
where the mists of error and ignorance shall 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 49 

pass from before Ms eyes, and lie be ushered 
into the full and perfect light of everlasting 
day. 

The Catholic Church, from the first, pro- 
mulgated and maintained, that truth was 
the very source of all liberty, and that man- 
kind, rich and poor, black and white, from 
the king to the beggar, are equal in the sight 
of Grod, dear to His heart, created by His 
own august power, and destined to reign 
with Him forever in the Kingdom of His 
glory. .Why, then, should the church that 
claims to be the spouse of the Most High, 
desire to despise and degrade his dear chil- 
dren in the flesh ? To accuse her of such a 
crime, is a base and wicked fabrication — 
the Church not only established the princi- 
ple of equality, but she made it practical. 
The child of the poorest Catholic peasant 
can aspire to the Papal chair as well as he 
of the blood royal. I have seen the poor 
French peasant, with his wooden shoes, tread 
the grand aisles of Notre Dame, side by side 
with the proudest and most wealthy citizen 



50 THE QUESTIOIsr SOLVED. 

of la belle France — kneel before the same 
altar — partake of the same sacraments, and 
no distinction made between them. What 
say the poor people of the First Reformed 
Chnrch ? All superiority is left outside the 
doors of the Catholic Church ; inside, the 
king and the beggar are brought to the same 
level. By her divine philanthropy she ele- 
vates and ennobles the lowest creature in 
society, and has frequently brought kings 
and princes down from their exalted posi- 
tions, to wash the feet of the poor. Is a 
religion that teaches such noble virtues as 
these, to be accused of favoring despotism ? 
If an oppressed people, under a cruel and 
despotic government, wish to overthrow the 
oppressor, the Church permits them to arm 
themselves in defense of their liberties, and 
shake off the yoke that tyranny imposes 
upon them ; but in case they are too feeble 
to resist, they are counseled to bear pa- 
tiently the wrongs inflicted, rather than 
place themselves in an attitude which would 
surely bring destruction upon them. The 



THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 51 

Church teaches them to die like Christians, 
knowing full well that the blood of martyrs 
is destructive to tyranny. 

The Church is not, and never was, hostile 
to liberty ; on the contrary, she is, and ever 
was, favorable to freedom. The doctrine that 
' ' all men are born free and equal, ' ' was held 
by her more than a thousand years before 
Thomas Jefferson was born. As early as the 
accession of Henry I, of England, an ecclesi- 
astical council, held by St. Anselm, de- 
nounced slavery as contrary to the laws of 
God. The great synod of Armagh, at a time 
when Englishmen were in a state of bondage 
in Ireland, decreed and ordained that slavery 
must be abolished in that country ; and it 
was done. That land, now in a condition 
of slavery herself, has the honor of the first 
general act of emancipation known in 
history. 

A voice that teaches sovereigns that they 
should be the dispensers of kindness and 
benevolence to the people whom they gov- 
ern, that they must reign according to the 



52 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 

spirit and letter of the law, and that there 
is a Judge and Prince in Heaven, who will 
one day bring them to an account for any 
wrong done to the subject, cannot be in 
league with despotism. 

Let us now investigate the Protestant side 
of this question. Did not Henry VIII, the 
head and chief of English Protestants, cause 
his ministers to preach the divine right of 
kings, and obedience to royalty ? In 1540, 
a miserable party of sycophants got together, 
obtained Parliamentary sanction, and com- 
piled a work to show that subjects could 
not withdraw their obedience from their king, 
for any cause whatever; that the people 
must obey all the laws, proclamations, pre- 
cepts and commandments, made by their 
princes and governors ; that they must not 
draw their swords against their prince for 
any cause; nor against any other person 
without his leave. This work was written 
by those who called themselves Christian 
teachers. Archbishop Cranmer, at the 
coronation of Edward VI, declared that 



THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 53 

liis right to govern did not depend npon 
any engagement made at Ms coronation; 
that Ms crown was given Mm by Almighty 
God, and could not, by any failure in 
Ms administration, be forfeited. Bonner, 
in 1549, declared in a sermon at Paul's 
Cross, that any resistance to royalty 
would certainly bring eternal perdition on 
the rebel ; that all such as rebelled against 
their prince, no matter the cause, get unto 
them damnation ! ''Those," said he, ''that 
resist the high power, resist the ordinance 
of Grod ; and he that dies in rebellion, by 
the words of God, is utterly lost, body and 
soul." Bonner was obliged to preach this 
doctrine, else lose his head or Ms diocese. 
The difference between him and a Catholic 
bishop, would simply be this: the latter 
would forfeit both, sooner than give utter- 
ance to such a doctrine, while the former 
would preach any thing prescribed to him, 
rather than lose either. In the Book of 
Homilies, the "right divine" is maintained, 

and in the tenth sermon of the first book, 
5* 



54 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLYED. 

Elizabeth caused the same doctrine to be 
preached after the following manner : ^^The 
high power and authority of kings, with 
their making of laws, judgments, and offi- 
ces, are the ordinances not of man, but of 
Grod." And further, '4t is not lawful, for 
inferiors and subjects in any cause, to resist 
and stand against the supreme powers;" 
and again, ''this is so manifest, it is an in- 
tolerable ignorance, madness, and wicked- 
ness, for subjects to make any murmuring, 
rebellion, resistance, commotion or insurrec- 
tion, against this dear and dread sovereign, 
lord and king (Elizabeth), ordained and ap- 
pointed of God's goodness, for their com- 
modity, peace, and quietness." This was 
the kind of doctrine preached and backed 
up by a few texts of Scripture, from that 
period to the time of Queen Anne ; and so 
the Protestant Church of England taught in 
the reign of Charles II, and of James. In 
1622, a man named Knight attempted to in- 
culcate principles differing from the above, 
when a law was passed and put strictly ir 



THE QtJESTIO^Sr SOLVED. 55 

force, and the graduates of Oxford had to 
make oath, that '4n no case is it lawful to 
use force against the sovereign." The book 
from which poor Knight obtained his proofs 
was ordered to be burnt publicly before the 
two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 
Mainwaring was made bishop by Charles I, 
for holding to the doctrine of the ^' right 
divine," and the Protestant Church in con- 
vocation adopted his views, adding, that 
^^ under the most^earfal penalties, the sub- 
ject must give tribute, aid, and subsidy, and 
all manner of support to kings, by the law 
of God, and of nature, and of nations, in 
all cases, and that the subject has not so 
good a right to his individual property as 
the king has to it." The House of Com- 
mons, however, having a higher apprecia- 
tion of justice, condemned the canons after 
the church had passed them. This act 
brought the Commons in direct antagonism 
to the church and the king; until at last 
the Commons triumphed, and brought the 
king' s head to the block. Anarchy and con- 



56 THE QUESTIOlsr SOLYED. 

fusion became the order of the day in Pro- 
testant England, and the blood that was 
shed by contending factions was fearful to 
contemplate, and although Cromwell dis- 
solved the long parliament and seized the 
reins of power, the ''right divi:^e" still as- 
serted its authority. Tillotson wrote a letter 
to the unfortunate Lord Russell, previous 
to his execution, informing him that non- 
resistance was the doctrine of all Protestant 
churches. 

Let us contrast such teachings, with what 
the Church prescribed, and which the learned 
doctor willfully ignores. Does he not know 
that the doctrine, that ''the people are the 
legitimate source of civil authority," was of 
Catholic origin? Let him turn over the 
pages of English history, and he will find 
the Holy Pontiff proclaiming the decision, 
which afterwards became a law, as far back 
as the time of Edward the Confessor, "that 
unless the ruler properly discharge his 
duties towards the people of his realm, he 
shall not be allowed the name of king, even 



THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 57 

by courtesy." The Catholic Judge Bracton, 
in the reign of Henry III, says, ^^he is a 
king when he reigns well, but a tyrant when 
he oppresses the people. ' ' In another place, 
this learned advocate proclaims, that ''when 
the king ceases to govern according to law, 
he is not a king ; he is a tyrant, and a min- 
ister of the devil." Both Edward and 
Richard II were deposed by a Catholic 
parliament, for misgovernment and injustice 
to the people. Fortescue, Catholic Chan- 
cellor of Henry VI, publicly declared that 
" a king was placed by the people to defend 
the laws of his subjects, their bodies and 
their goods." Thus the Catholic Church 
and Catholic doctrine ever stood between 
the people and their tyrants. Does not the 
minister of the ^Hwo steepled church" know 
well that Magna CTiarta^ the basis of Eng- 
lish rights and liberties, was wrung from 
King John by Catholics, the priests and 
bishops at their head ? They taught the 
people their civil rights, and took care that 
the king duly observed his oath of office. 



58 THE QUESTIOIsT SOLVED. 

The canons of the Church, in fact, formed 
the basis of the civil law of England. The 
clergy tanght the people that excessive 
taxation was wrong, and that taxation with- 
out representation was wicked, and ought 
to be resisted. In 1223, they caused Henry 
III to confirm these decisions, and in after 
years when the same king tried to repeal 
the great charter, the clerical party defeated 
his efforts, and maintained the rights of the 
people. It was Hubert, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, that declared the crown to be 
elective, so that it was a decision of the 
people that placed John upon the throne. 
When he afterwards attempted to crush the 
barons, and quarrel with the clergy. Cardi- 
nal Langdon produced the old charter, 
forced the king to desist from violating the 
law, and thus protected the subject in his 
legal rights. The clergy were the expound- 
ers of the law ; they explained them to the 
people twice a year in their grand cathe- 
drals. The Church, in all ages and in all 
countries, protected the poor in their civil 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 59 

rights, and for this she became the object 
of fear and jealousy. Persecutions had 
been raised against her faithful ministers, in 
the reign of William the Conqueror, William 
Rufus, and Henry I, away down, in fact, to 
the wicked revolt under Henry YIII, that 
monster of iniquity. These were the days 
of confessors and martyrs, who yielded up 
their lives for the sake of God and His 
poor — glorious men, who dared to stand 
before king and baron and battle for the 
right. 

The Church does not administer secular 
governments, nor does she interfere with 
them, further than to declare the law which 
all secular governments are bound to obey, 
on peril of contravening the law of God. 
The church claims to define the spiritual 
order upon which the State should be 
founded, and opposes no revolution in favor 
of sound, religious principles. She wages 
war against unlawful means to overturn any 
existing government. With us here in free 
America, it seems the height of folly to sup- 



60 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

pose for a second that the Church would 
undertake, at this age of her existence, to 
accomplish for the United States, what she 
never yet dreamed of in connection with any 
other government under the sun. As far as 
we know, the Church finds no fault with the 
Constitution of the United States. It per- 
mits us the freedom of our religious opin- 
ions, and the practices of our faith, the 
same as it does all others. Have we not a 
right, therefore, to promulgate our religious 
principles, by lawful means, as far as we 
can, in order to save souls, which is the 
chief object of the Church' s mission, as well 
as to save society from final destruction ? 
We do not desire, nor do we strive for politi- 
cal power as Protestants do, to bring about 
this happy result : it is Protestants who are 
aiming for State power, to control the relig- 
ious opinions of Catholics ; but this they 
never can accomplish, let them whine, rant, 
and intrigue as they will. The die is cast ! 
There is a strong anti-Christian power in the 
body politic, which will suffer no state 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 61 

religion ; and even if there was not, the 
sects themselves could never agree upon a 
State religions creed. Such tools as Dr. 
Clark, who invent lies as fast as Dexter can 
trot, and draw conclusions from them as 
quickly, are the worst enemies to civil soci- 
ety. With pompous declamation, and crafty, 
lying essays, they warn the State against 
the grasping nature of the Church — tell the 
people they are in imminent danger of 
losing their liberties, and that Catholics are 
threatening to tumble down their free insti- 
tutions in their faces. To show the lying 
propensities of such scribblers, we would 
only refer the reader to an article, or rather 
a string of falsehoods, published in Put- 
nam's Magazine for July of last year. 
They were ably refuted by that high-toned 
periodical, the Catholic Worlds in the 
August number, which every Protestant, 
having any regard for truth, should procure 
and study for themselves, in order to see 
how their religious teachers deceive them. 
Notwithstanding the aforementioned state- 



62 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

ments were shown to be untrue, Putnam^ s 
Magazine took no notice of the refutation ; 
neither did the Protestant press, which had 
given the article wide publication. No, no ; 
they knew it was a lie when they published 
it, and they wanted to keep their readers 
still in the dark. Protestantism was born 
of a lie, and has been sustained by lying 
ever since. 

Instead of Catholics aiming at political 
power to destroy Protestant institutions, 
the boot should be placed on the other leg. 
We need only refer to the late know-nothing 
movement, the Protestant Association, and 
the American Christian Union. Protestant- 
ism has been always coqueting with politi- 
cal power, as has been proved over and 
over again, and if the real sentiments of the 
Evangelicals were known, they would prefer 
a scion of the House of Brunswick for their 
ruler, to the Congress of the United States, 
so as to be able to wield the throne of State, 
against the altar of the Church. Listen to 
the Christian Intelligencer : ''The religious 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 63 

liberty wMch places Catholics on an equal 
footing in the political order with Protest- 
ants, may be discovered to be a great mis- 
take." Is not that sentiment alone antago- 
nistic to the great American doctrine of equal 
rights ? They persist in forcing ns to send 
our children to be educated in schools con- 
trary to our dearest wishes, and because we 
object on religious grounds, they call us a 
priest-ridden, intriguing class, who are plan- 
ning the destruction of their free institutions. 
Such declamation is all bosh, gentlemen, 
and you know it — we cherish and respect 
free institutions as well as you do, and better 
too. We love institutions that the truth 
makes free — you love those which propa- 
gate error, which in the course of time will 
prove destructive to every Godlike gift in 
man. Reject the wholesome admonitions 
of the Church of Rome, which is the living, 
breathing, active Church of Jesus Christ on 
earth, the uncompromising enemy to infidel- 
ity and despotism of every shade and hue, 
the nurse of virtue, the patron of chastity, 



64 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 

the fountain of inspiration, and the mother 
of devotion ; stay her progress and yon will 
hasten down the stream of immorality and 
corruption, like drift-wood to the open sea. 
We are frequently taunted from the pulpit 
and by the sectarian press, that we go as 
enemies to the polls ; meaning thereby that 
Catholics act as a unit, in securing legisla- 
tion hostile to Protestants. There is not a 
word of truth in such a statement ; on the 
contrary, there are but lew of our clergy, as 
far as I know, who take any active part in 
politics beyond depositing a ballot ; nor do 
these all vote alike — some belong to one 
class of politics, and some to another ; the 
only difference between themselves and 
Protestant ministers in this respect is, that 
the former never join a fanatical party. The 
same may be said of the laymen ; they do 
not go to the polls as Catholics, they go as 
freemen and the only enemies they meet 
there, as a rule, are Protestants, who lay in 
wait for the poor laborer, to whom they hold 
out bribes, to tempt his poverty and corrupt 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 65 

Ms principles. The Protestant Dominie has 
ten times more control over the members of 
his congregation than the priest has over 
his. The former keeps dinging all the time 
into the ears of his hearers, both in the long 
prayer, and the prosaic sermon, till he 
makes a nose of wax of by far the majority 
of them ; while the poor priest allows his 
flock to act their own pleasure, in almost all 
cases. I have seen it stated not long since, 
that the GTiristian World (which is the 
month-piece of the American and Foreign 
Christian Union), urges it to be 'Hhe duty 
of all Protestants, to unite at the polls, and 
vote down everything that tended to ad- 
vance the interests of the Catholic Church." 
The whole history of Protestantism proves 
its despotic tendency — it tries to lord it 
over Catholics where it has power, and where 
it has not. In this country, when a just 
man urges forward a Catholic claim, in the 
halls of legislation, he is abused and decried 
for giving aid to the enemy. The sectarian 

press and the bigoted pulpit sing out 
6* 



66 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

^' enemy at the polls ! " ^ invasion of Prot- 
estant rights!" and the majority are let 
loose once more on the Catholic trail. It is 
to be regretted that Catholics do not take a 
lesson from Protestants and act with more 
concert in political affairs. They have as 
much right to demand legislation for the 
protection of their religion as Protestants 
have. To this equality Protestants object — 
they want to rule. They claim all privileges 
from the State, and wonder why Catholics 
are even tolerated. What arrogance ! All 
we ask, as Catholics, is equal rights with 
other denominations before the State. We 
claim no more, nor shall we be satisfied to 
take less, let the First Dutch say what it 
will. When I hear a Protestant minister 
injuring his lungs in the praise of religious 
freedom, I feel like cutting off his coat-tails 
so that every true lover of Liberty could get 
a decent kick at him. His voice is like the 
song of the siren, that charms but to devour. 



CHAP. TV. 

Protestant PREACHERS and the inquisition— the inquisition 

AND the WAIiDENSES— ST. DOMINIC AND THE INQUISITION — 
SPAIN AND THE INQUISITION — POPE SIXTUS IV AND THE INQUISI- 
TION — PASCAI. — ROME THE JEWISH PARADISE. 

DR. CLARK, in common with all other 
Protestant preachers, scarcely ever con- 
cludes a discourse, without interlarding it 
with the Inquisition. It is Inquisition in the 
beginning, Inquisition in the middle, and 
Inquisition at the end, until their hearers, 
like themselves, get Inquisition on the brain. 
We are no apologist for any institution that 
tjrrannizes over the conscience of man, 
neither would we willingly submit to have 
opinions, destructive of religion and civil 
polity thrust upon us. Personally, I regret 
the Church having any thing to do with the 
Inquisition, and yet, when I consider the age 
in which it was instituted in Spain, the 
circumstances which called it forth, what the 
Church had to suffer from^ heresy for eight 
centuries previous, and the condition of 



68 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

society, I do not wonder that a check was 
pnt on the fomenters of strife in the State, 
and discord in the Church. It seems hard 
to take the life of a human creature, to 
torture, or throw him in prison, but we have 
examples sufficient to prove that mercy has 
a limit, even with the Almighty. We well 
know that God destroyed all the inhabitants 
of the earth, save ISToah and his family ; and 
the Old Testament is full of examples, where 
the chosen of the Lord had put thousands 
to the sword. Whole tribes and nations 
were disinherited, and cities destroyed by fire 
from heaven, on account of man' s insubordi- 
nation, his infidelity and his crimes. Prot- 
estants will have it that the Inquisition was 
the work of the Church. Now, this is a lie ! 
They also maintain that it was the ecclesi- 
astical tribunal that passed the penalty of 
the law. This also is a lie ! Dr. Clark told 
his people, in his lecture on the Waldenses, 
that they were condemned to death, by the 
priests, for opinion's sake. This is a pal- 
pable lie, and it is a great wonder it did not 



THE QUESTION SOLYED. 69 

choke him when he gave it utterance ! Prot- 
estants also insist that St. Dominic was its 
founder, and the good saint has been con- 
tinually the object of abuse and condemna- 
tion, when it is a well established fact that 
he never opposed heresy with any other 
weapons than prayer, patience, and good 
counsel. It is not exactly known when or 
where the Inquisition was first established ; 
but this much is certain, that in its first 
operations it was mild and salutary, and 
continued so until the civil power made use 
of it for its own protection. It was not until 
the latter part of the fifteenth century that 
its rigors were fairly put into practice. It 
is unjust, therefore, to charge St. Dominic 
or any other ecclesiastic with either its sever- 
ity or its abuse. The part that was intrusted 
to that order, long after the death of St. 
Dominic, was the preaching part. Judaism 
had crept into Spain in or about the fifteenth 
century. The wealth and intermarriage of 
the Jews with many of the noble families 
of the realm, especially those connected 



70 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

with the government, had made them a 
formidable power in the political status of 
the country. Add to this the influence 
arising from the remains of Mahometanism, 
which had already cursed the land with its 
despotic sway, and deluged its fertile prov- 
inces with the blood of its own people. The 
country was thus jeopardized, by Judaism 
on the one hand and Islamism on the other. 
The noble Castilians could not stand this 
encroachment any longer — a jealousy, deep 
and bitter, sprang up — the Cortes demanded 
strong measures against the Jews — the 
provinces flew to arms, and a most terrible 
slaughter was the result. The political 
horizon grew thick and murky, thunder- 
bolts were pent up in the surrounding gloom, 
when Ferdinand thought it high time to put 
a stop to the impending danger, which 
threatened the country, and the Inquisition 
was accordingly called into operation. 
Isabella opposed the severe measures, but 
the king prevailed, and the Inquisition was 
put in full force. La Maistre says, that ^4t 



THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 71 

is a great error to suppose that we can get 
rid of a powerful enemy by merely clieck- 
ing him ; prudence tells us that we should at 
least drive him into his intrenchments. ' ' The 
Spanish Inquisition was not an ecclesiastical 
instrument to punish men for conscience 
sake, it was purely royal ; and any odium 
attached to it is to be attributed to the minis- 
ters of the crown, and not to the ministers 
of the Church. 

I do not know how Dr. Clark, or any 
man like him, can draw such horrid pictures 
of the Inquisition, and then charge them to 
Catholics, unless he is a close student of the 
infidel Yoltaire, who, in his hatred towards 
Christianity, ridiculed and falsified every 
thing connected with its progress and pro- 
tection. The imaginations of a people are 
easily worked up by a crafty teacher or a dis- 
sembling preacher, so that they will believe 
the most absurd story against Catholics, 
because their minds are already made up on 
that score — their ears being used to such 
lying calumnies from their earliest infancy. 



73 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

In conversation with one of Dr. Clark' s 
parishioners a few days ago, he would have 
it that the priests put heretics on the spit 
and turned them before great fires — broiled 
them on gridirons, etc. Was there ever 
credulity like this ? ISTo well educated man, 
unless he should be a shameless profligate, 
and breathing the air of infamy, would utter 
such scandalous abominations. But there 
are some dupes so blinded by prejudice that 
they will swallow any thing and every thing 
no matter how absurd, should its aim be to 
throw obloquy on our holy religion and its 
ministers. "" 

A couple of summers ago I met a deacon 
of one of the Presbyterian churches of 
Rochester — we boarded at the same hotel, 
and had many conversations on one subject 
and another. In the main he seemed pretty 
well informed, but on the subject of religion 
his knowledge appeared very limited. In 
relating to him a story, to illustrate the 
tenacity of Irish Catholics to the faith of 
Jesus Christ, during the invasion of Crom- 



THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 73 

well, he looked at me with astonishment, 
and exclaimed, ^' Well, that's the first time 
that I ever heard that Catholics believed in 
the Lord Jesus Christ ! " I looked at him 
with double surprise, and asked him if he 
truly meant it, and he replied in the affirm- 
ative. I went forthwith and procured him 
a three-penny catechism, and requested 
him to read it. At first he objected, for he 
did not suppose it contained any thing good. 
I prevailed upon him, however, to look it 
over at his leisure. I saw him next morning 
after breakfast — he had read it some time 
during the night, and approached me with 
the book in his hand saying, ' ' I don' t know, 
after all, that we differ much on the main 
points of Christian doctrine. ' ' He promised 
me he would investigate the subject more 
thoroughly, and seemed much mortified at 
his ignorance of Catholic dogma. 

This is precisely the case with thousands 

of well-meaning Protestants — they are kept 

in ignorance of the faith of Catholics, and 

their minds are poisoned by their ministers, 

7 



74 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 

their literature and their traditions. An 
American may be excused for Ms ignorance of 
the religious belief of Chinese Tartary, or the 
South Sea Islands, but to be unacquainted 
with the general outlines of Catholic faith, 
seems to me very singular, to say the least. 
They have heard more and know less of the 
Church of Christ, than any other civilized 
people on the globe. Their ministers will be 
held to a strict account before the judgment 
seat of Grod for all this ignorance. Their 
ministry is an office of prejudice, hate and 
rancor, with which they fill the breasts of 
those over whom they exercise an influence. 
In that dreadful day when they are arraigned 
before the face of the great Judge, and as 
they stand before Him, in all the ugliness 
of the grave, chattering blasphemy against 
the Almighty, while thousands upon thou- 
sands of their dupes shall come up in judg- 
ment against them, howling, in wild con- 
fusion, ^' Ye teachers of perdition, we have 
been damned through your deception," 
the Lord will hurl them from His presence, 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 75 

never more to see the light of His counte- 
nance. 

We challenge Dr. Clark, or any other per- 
son, to point to any Catholic bishop or 
priest that ever took the life of an individual. 
They preach rather mercy and forgiveness, 
clemency and justice, throughout the earth — 
they but too often yielded up their own lives 
as a living sacrifice, for the sake of Gfod' s 
poor and the honor of religion. The Catho- 
lic Church, kind mother that she is, views 
mankind in a different light from those who 
libel her — she looks upon men as the image^v 
of that God whom she worships and adores, 
for well she knows that they all have been 
ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ, 
whether they belong to the household of 
faith or not. 

It was principally for this reason that Pope 
Sixtus IV allowed ecclesiastics to act as 
inquisitors, lest any individual should have 
been unjustly sentenced by the civil magis- 
trates. Dr. Clark, in referring to Pascal, 
took good care not to mention any opinion 



76 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

that the great man held favorable to the 
Church. In one of his provincial letters, he 
says, ^'the Church holds the effusion of 
blood in such abhorrence that she deems 
all who abet, promote and effect a capital 
condemnation of a fellow being, although it 
be accompanied by every religious consid- 
eration, to be disquaMed from oflBlciating at 
her altars." 

If the Church was given to persecution 
and the destruction of human life, as has 
been charged upon her, how comes it that 
she never yet perpetrated a deed of blood, for 
opinions' sake, in that province which she 
legitimately calls her own ? There was not 
a country in all Europe where the Jew was 
so well protected in his rights, as in the 
Papal States. In contradistinction to the 
annoyances to which they were subjected in 
all other lands in those days, they used to 
designate Rome as the Jewish Paradise. 
If any fault could be found with the papal 
government, it should be attributed rather 
to its mildness and humanity in the exercise 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 77 

of its authority than otherwise. A more 
just and paternal code of political ethics 
never was adopted by a civilized people, 
than was that of Rome, nntU English 
fomenters of rebellion and their infidel allies 
took up their abode there, hatching sedition 
and revolt. It was there, among an unsus- 
pecting people, that these villains distilled 
the poison of rationalism and disobedience 
to constituted authority, under the pretext 
of liberty, independence, etc. I never knew 
a rascal yet that did not appeal to such high 
sounding pretensions as a cover to hide his 
depravity — just like the snake that crawls 
among the flowers, and when the unwary 
stoops to pluck an inviting blossom, he is 
met by the deadly fangs concealed beneath. 



CHAP. Y. 

Protestant SAINTS — CRUELTIES or the Hollanders inforctng 

PROTESTANTISM INTO THE NETHERLANDS — THE PRINCE OP 
ORANGE AND THE DUKE OP ALVA — THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR — 
PERSECUTIONS IN THE REIGN OP HENRY VIII — PENAL CODE OP 
ELIZABETH — IRELAND DRENCHED WITH THlfc BLOOD OP HER 
CHILDREN— D'AUBIQNE AND ST. PATRICK — DESECRATION OP 
THE GRAVES OP IRISH SAINTS. 

IT is not at all pleasant to open anew the 
wounds and scars of religious strife, even 
by allusion. Individually, we would rather 
allow every form of past impiety, bloodshed 
and injustice to sleep forever in the dismal 
graves of their own making, to improve the 
present, and to look forward with hope to 
the future ; but the spirit of Cain is still 
rampant among the people, and nowhere 
does it seem to take deeper root than in the 
hearts of your Protestant preachers. Ob- 
serve one of these creatures, in his degraded 
pulpit, and you cannot fail to discover a 
want of sincerity, which, to the student of 
human nature, is truly revolting. N'owhere 
could you find a purer specimen of this 
class than the very D. D. of the ^'two- 



THE QUESTIO]^ SOLYED. 79 

steepled" churcli, for it seems as if Ms 
breast is a nest of vipers, and every time lie 
opens Ms month, a serpent tlirnsts ont its 
head. Poor Darling is bad enongh in all 
conscience, bnt he is no more to be com- 
pared to Clark, in virulence, than a sword- 
fish is to a crocodile. 

This brace of precious revilers have both 
openly and covertly attacked us, without 
any provocation whatever, and we must de- 
fend ourselves as best we can. They lie 
continually about us ; we shall content our- 
selves by telling the truth about them. The 
one calls our Church the ' ' enemy of liberty, ' ' 
and the other, the ''cruel persecutor of the 
saints of God," meaning Protestants. We 
have disposed of the former accusation, and 
it now only remains for us to disprove the 
latter, which we will undertake to do in one 
sentence : There never was such a being as 
a Protestant saint, and as the Church could 
not interfere with that which had no exist- 
ence, the assertion is at once proven to be 
false. 



80 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

On the contrary, the spirit of persecution 
has always accompanied Protestantism, as 
the following deeds of cruelty will clearly 
show : The history of Protestantism forms 
but one long catalogue of violence ; it had 
its origin in rebellion, and blood and murder 
fast followed in its train. Rousseau, who 
was educated a Protestant, says, that "the 
Reformation was intolerant from its cradle, 
and its authors, universally persecutors." 

Good people of the ^' Dutch Reformed," 
I pray you, listen to your amiable saint 
Luther : ^ ' If we send thieves to the gallows, 
and robbers to the block, why do we not fall 
on those masters of perdition, the popes, 
cardinals, and bishops, with all our force, 
and not give over till we have bathed our 
hands in their blood ?" He also called the 
people to arms without waiting for the orders 
of a magistrate. He counsels his followers 
after this manner : ''If you fall before the 
beast (pope) has received his mortal wound, 
you will have but one thing to be sorry for, 
that you did not bury your dagger in his 



THE QUESTIO]^ SOLVED. 81 

breast. All that defend him must be treated 
like a band of robbers, be they kings or be 
they Caesars." These were the first blasts 
blown from the trumpet of the Reformation, 
and which summoned the Lutherans and 
Anabaptists of Lower Germany to deeds of 
anarchy and confusion. St Zwinglius did 
the same in Switzerland ; he preached his 
new doctrine by the aid of war and devasta- 
tion, as did Mahomet. The Anabaptists, as 
well as the Catholics, came in for their share 
of the blessed doctrine — little of the milk 
of the Word, but plenty of cold steel, burn- 
ings, and the dungeon. St ^^hilip Melanc- 
thon wrote a work in defense of persecu- 
tions, and even Bucer, a professor of divin- 
ity, sanctioned the dagger and the axe in 
propagating the new religion ; and, in proof 
of his saintly character, he taught, that 
Servetus should not only be burned, but 
that ''his bowels ought to have been torn 
out, and his body chopped to pieces!" 
John Calvin stood chief saint of them all 
in his persecuting principles ; he established 



82 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

his inquisition at Geneva, for the punish- 
ment of all who did not embrace his vile 
doctrine of '' Predestination." Poor Serve- 
tus, the first victim, was burned at the stake, 
Gruet lost his head, and Groteus starved to 
death in one of the prisons of Berne. St. 
Beza also wrote a work in support of perse- 
cutions. Baron Des Adrets was a precious 
saint; he resembled a tiger in his thirst for 
blood; and, on a certain occasion, caused 
his little son to wash his young hands in 
Catholic blood ! ! 

IsTeither time nor space will allow me to 
record the ter^ble massacre at Msmes and 
Montpelier, where thousands were butchered 
in cold blood, while the Consistories of Cal- 
vin looked on with delight. 

The cruel devices of the Hollanders in 
forcing Protestantism into the Netherlands 
have no parallel in the worst ages of ancient 
barbarism. Let us give a sample of Dutch 
cruelty, as portrayed by a Protestant histo- 
rian, Kerroux, and which we take the liberty 
to copy from Plain Talk: "The ordinary 



THE QUESTIOiq" SOLVED. 83 

processes of cruel torture were only the 
lowest degree of punishment inflicted on the 
innocent. Their limbs were disjointed ; the 
flesh, hanging in shreds, after a pitiless 
scourging, was swathed in rags dipped in 
alcohol, then set on fire until the flesh burnt 
and the nerves crisped ; the bones were bared 
to view. Sometimes, so much as half a 
pound of sulphur was employed in burn- 
ing the armpits and the soles of their feet. 
Thus martyred, they were abandoned on 
the fields for days and nights without any 
relief, only that repeated blows drove sleep 
away from their eyes. N^o food was given 
but herrings, or such as would create a 
burning thirst, whilst no kind of drink, no, 
not even water, was allowed. Hornets were 
inserted to sting their navels. Sonoi went 
so far, as to cause rabid rats to be placed 
on the breasts and bellies of those martyrs, 
inclosed in a box made for the purpose, and 
covered with combustibles. Fire being ap- 
plied, these vermin became furious, and 
would cleave a way for themselves, tearing 



84 THE QUESTI02>r SOLVED. 

the bowels and the hearts of the victims. 
The wounds were seared with burning coals, 
or molten lead was poured into them. ... 
He had invented even more horrible tor- 
ments, and he inflicted them in cold blood ; 
cannibals would be disgraced by his cruelty ; 
decency forbids us to say more." 

In plotting murder and all other abomi- 
nations, those early Protestants might claim 
the medal. About the year 1680, Henry 
III was dispatched after the following man- 
ner: the Huguenot faction murdered a 
Dominican Friar, and one of the assassins 
put on his habit, sought admission to the 
royal court, and assassinated the king to 
make room for Henry IV, who favored 
their cause. 

It was by a mean, contemptible plot that 
William of Orange, after being defeated by 
the Duke of Alva, in the Netherlands, when 
tranquillity had been restored to that dis- 
tracted region, threw it back again into 
anarchy. He conspired with the Holland- 
ers, from his headquarters among the 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 85 

Huguenots, in France ; lie had his emissa- 
ries play the role of preachers, and sent 
them out to stir up a new revolt ; and when 
the plan was matured, he led out his adher- 
ents in great force, before the Duke of Alva 
was made aware of the fact, and the Flemish 
dominions were drenched in human gore. 

Look through the history of the Thirty 
Years' War, and see the sanguinary horrors 
and infamous excesses which those blas- 
phemous heresiarchs brought upon every 
land through which the generals of the 
Infernal Host led them. They deluged 
France, Grermany, Denmark, and Sweden, 
with rivers of blood ; devastated towns and 
villages ; and showed no mercy to age, sex, 
or condition. Estimates of the number 
slain in battle in the low countries, aside 
from those hanged, emboweled, starved, 
burned, died in prison, etc., are variously 
laid down at from one to two hundred 
thousand ; add to this the desecration of 
Churches, the pillage of the sacred vessels, 

rare and costly paintings and statuary, the 

8 



86 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

destruction of libraries which contained the 
collected wisdom of ages, the abuse of 
woman, the demoralization of children, the 
lust and licentiousness of every kind and 
description, and you have the first fruits of 
your boasted Reformation in Germany. 

What has been said of distracted Ger- 
many, may be told of France; wherever 
the Calvinists gained strength and power, 
fearful carnage ensued. Twenty thousand 
Catholic Churches were demolished, and 
even the hospitals which contained the sick 
and suffering were razed, and the poor in- 
mates abused by a rough and brutal soldiery, 
and left unsheltered to the mercy of the 
elements. The whole of IS'ormandy was 
wrecked in a most frightful manner, priests 
were murdered, and monks buried alive. 
In the province of Dauphiny, three hundred 
and sixty-seven priests and monks were 
murdered, and nine hundred towns and vil- 
lages sacked and burned. 

In Denmark and Sweden, Protestant vio- 
lence also did its work, and to this present 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 87 

day it is a penal offense for a Swede to 
become a Catholic. 

In 1533, Pope Harry VIII, of blessed 
memory to Protestants, sent forth his 'bull^ 
from which we take the following order : 
''Every person presented or indicted of 
any heresy, or duly accused by two lawful 
witnesses, may be cited, arrested or taken 
by an ordinary, or other of the king's sub- 
jects, and committed to the ordinary to 
answer in open court ; and, being convicted, 
shall abjure his heresies, and, refusing to 
do so, or falling into relapse, sliall he 
hurned in open place, for an example to 
others." 

Very soon a poor priest named John 
Nicholson was condemned, and burned at 
Smithfield ; and after him a man and a 
woman were also committed to the flames. 
Two priests and an abbot were hung and 
quartered at Reading, and the Abbot of 
Glastonbury was hung and quartered at 
Torre Hill. Shortly after two monks and 
the Abbot of Colchester were put to death 



88 THE QUESTIO:^' SOLVED. 

for simply denying the king's supremacy. 
Two noblemen. Sir William Peterson, and 
Sir William Richardson, priests, were 
drawn on the rack, hanged and quartered 
for the same offense. Anne Ascue, a beau- 
tiful young lady, who was accused of dog- 
matizing on an article of faith, met with a 
most terrible death. After the poor crea- 
ture had been stretched on the rack, the 
chancellor ordered the lieutenant of the 
Tower to turn it still further ; the oflS.cer 
refused, and in a moment of rage the 
chancellor himself put his hands to the 
cruel instrument, and almost tore her body 
asunder ! This failed to make her re- 
nounce her faith, when she was taken out, 
carried in a chair to Smithfield, and there 
burned alive with three others, condemned 
for the same offense. 

Some writers calculate that, during the 
despotic sway of Henry YIII, seventy-two 
thousand persons were executed, but this 
falls far below the proper estimate. The 
truth never can be known, on account of 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 89 

the numbers that were privately assassin- 
ated ; and then again, our chief information 
on the subject is taken from Protestant 
sources. Most of the Catholics that were 
left within the realm were so persecuted 
that their lives were but a slow process of 
death. 

When the perjured Elizabeth, the illegiti- 
mate daughter of Henry, ascended the 
throne, the edicts of persecution were re- 
newed with double energy. The most 
severe laws and penal enactments were set 
in motion, the recital of which makes the 
heart sick. An ecclesiastical commission 
was set up, called the Star Chamber, the 
iniquities of which would rival even the 
court of Pluto. The fiends, on the slightest 
pretense or suspicion, would arraign a per- 
son before them, administer to him an 
oath, and extort confession by the rack, 
imprisonment and fines. If one showed 
the smallest consideration for, or exercised 
the least act of hospitality or benevolence 

toward, a religious, he was fined and im- 
8* 



00 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

prisoned. Hanging, burning, emboweling, 
racking, and quartering, were the order 
of the day. It seemed as if every feeling 
of humanity had perished in the bosoms of 
those inhuman reformers, and that malig- 
nity of the most direful kind had taken its 
place. The tears of the widow, the cries 
of the orphan, the sobs and groans of the 
dying, failed to awaken the first minimum 
of justice, the first impulse of mercy. 

During the fierce and bloody reign of 
Elizabeth, tribunals were established, all 
over the land, to suppress the Catholic 
faith, and thousands of that communion 
were apprehended, confined, banished, 
hanged and tortured, without a due pro- 
cess of law. Even children, who absented 
themselves from Protestant worship, were 
cast into prison, and often executed. 

Who has not heard of Edward Campian, 
the famous scholar, and one of the brightest 
stars that ever appeared in the galaxy of 
Christ Church School, in London. He it 
was who delivered the Latin oration before 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 91 

the beautiful Queen of Scots upon her acces- 
sion to the throne. He subsequently took 
the degree of A. M. at Oxford, and was 
admitted to orders by the Protestant Bishop 
of Gloucester. When Elizabeth paid her 
respects to the University, he was again 
chosen to deliver an oration in Latin, which 
captivated all present ; it was a production 
of great merit, and a master-piece of elo- 
quence. But, like every great and honest 
mind, he became suspicious of the reformed 
doctrines, retired to Ireland, where, after a 
faithful study of the subject, aided by 
prayer, he renounced the errors of the 
Reformation, and embraced the old faith. 
He threw away, as worthless, all the honors, 
distinctions and preferments which he had 
but to stretch out his hand to acquire, even 
the patronage of the throne, to join the 
Society of Jesus, and lead the life of a poor 
missionary priest. He was spotted out in 
Ireland, and obliged to fly the country ; he 
returned to England, to be arrested for high 
treason, and condemned, without proper 



93 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

evidence, with three other priests. They 
were executed at Tyburn. Here was a man 
charged with the crime of high treason, 
whose character was pure and spotless from 
his youth up, the pride of the learned, an 
ornament to society, and a friend of human- 
ity, who preferred a life of poverty, with 
truth and justice for his models, rather than 
to be a peer among the great ones of earth, 
with whom humanity was weakness, and 
justice a mockery. 

Search the universe from pole to pole, 
look back through the annals of Time, and 
you cannot find any thing to compare in 
ferocity with the penal laws of Elizabeth. 
The freedom of man's will was enslaved by 
brute force ; he was forbidden to follow the 
dictates of his own conscience, and com- 
pelled to attend a worship which his reason 
and faith told him was false. He was taxed 
beyond his means to support that in which 
he had no part or concern ; he could not 
entertain for a moment a priest or a teacher 
of his own choice, beneath his roof, without 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 93 

exposing himself to fines, imprisonment and 
even to death. He was robbed of the fruits 
of toil, forbidden to travel more than five 
miles from his own home, not even to attend 
the burial of a fond and tender parent or 
friend. The wife of his bosom, and the 
daughter of his affection, were brutalized 
before his face, and by those, too, who 
claimed to be the only legitimate Chris- 
tians ! ! ! Three men could not meet in the 
street, even by accident, without being ap- 
prehended and punished. IsTo Catholic 
could own a horse worth more than £5; 
should he possess such an animal, a Prot- 
estant was at liberty to come and demand 
it, and if refused might break in the door 
of the stable and take him by force ! If the 
owner made any objections, the robber 
might shoot him, without being punished 
for his crime. No Catholic could act as 
guardian, or give instruction to the orphan 
child of a deceased brother or sister. Leases 
were granted to Protestants alone, beyond a 
certain term; no Papist could serve on a 



94 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

jury, or give evidence in a court of law. A 
Catholic could not be admitted to bail ; in 
fact, he had no privilege that he might call 
his own ! The sum of £5 was paid for the 
head of his priest and his schoolmaster! 
It was no unfrequent incident for a rufllan 
to rush into a Catholic congregation, and 
thrust a dagger through the body of the 
priest, while officiating at the altar ! These 
are but samples of the atrocities which poor 
Ireland had to suffer during the reign of 
that shameless woman, who was head and 
mistress of the second Protestant reforma- 
tion in England. 

The sufferings of Irish Catholics during 
the invasion of Cromwell, that worse than 
Goth or Vandal, were truly terrific. This 
pious murderer capped the climax of all 
inhumanity. But why do I specify ? Each 
English marauder vied with his predecessor 
in brutality. Murder, robbery, and confis- 
cation were the leading virtues of Protestant 
rule in Ireland. Thousands upon thousands 
were slaughtered, so that the land was cov- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 95 

ered over with the mangled bodies of its own 
people. Dr. Curry, who was a man of truth 
and unblemished character, describes the 
condition of the province of Munster during 
the ravages of Elizabeth's troops: ''Great 
companies of men, women and children 
were often forced into castles and other 
houses which were then set on fire ; and, if 
any of them attempted to escape from the 
flames, they were ^hot or stabbed by the 
soldiers who guarded them. It was a diver- 
sion to these monsters of men, to take up 
infants on the points of their spears, and 
whirl them about in their agony, saying that, 
if sujffered to live, they would grow up 
Popish rebels. Women were found hanging 
on trees, with their children at their breasts, 
strangled with their mothers' hair." 

Behold the atrocities of John Knox, who 
has been styled the ''Rufiian of the Refor- 
mation," and his pack of gospel-mongers. 
They succeeded in pulling down the ancient 
landmarks of Catholic faith, and Catholic 
morality, and finally degraded the once 



96 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

noble Scot into a semi-infidel, and bronght 
Ms Highland home into servile subjection 
to Elizabeth, the harlot Queen of England. 

Blessings on you, Ireland, land of strong 
and steadfast faith; your green hills and 
fertile valleys were stained with the inno- 
cent blood of your own children; though 
starvation, the jail, the ax, and the gibbet 
did their work of death and misery, you 
have survived the shock, and to-day stand 
as firmly to the religion of St. Patrick, as 
when that glorious Apostle laid him down 
to die, by the peaceful waters of the Red 
Lake ! 

That weak minded old dotard who under- 
took to write an apology for the Lutheran 
revolt, and called it ''History," writes 
another foolish document, claiming St. 
Patrick for the Presbyterians, in which he 
makes a laughing stock of himself. As 
well might the donkey that dug up Joe 
Smith's Bible claim to be its author, as 
D'Aubigne to make a Protestant of holy 
St. Patrick. He never mentions in his 



THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 97 

pamphlet, how the Protestants treated the 
remains of that Saint, in the reign of Henry 
VIII ; how the viceroy of Ireland, to please 
his royal master, and to weaken the faith 
of Irishmen, repaired to the County Down, 
where were interred the bodies of St. Pat- 
rick, St. Bridget and St. Columbkille; 
broke open their graves; dragged their 
hallowed remains from the sacred precincts 
of the tomb, and with the aid of a troop of 
brutal soldiers scattered their ashes to the 
four winds as they mournfully passed over 
Lough-Derg. 

The untutored savage respects the mem- 
ory and resting place of his dead, and in 
his greatest acts of barbarism, pauses before 
the graves of his sires ; nor will he molest 
the sacred mounds, where are interred his 
enemies in battle — but it was reserved for 
Protestants to defile and pollute the hal- 
lowed bones of our venerated and sanctified 
dead. 

Protestant tyrants, you have stolen our 
goods and chattels, robbed us of our 



98 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 

magnificent Christian temples, wMch. the 
faith, and piety of onr forefathers had 
erected to the worship and glory of the 
Triune God; you have demolished the 
houses of our religious confraternities, 
leveled the homes of the poor, and slaugh- 
tered our people by the million ! But the 
most brazen of all, for us Irishmen in par- 
ticular, and the hardest to be borne, is, that 
after such acts of Vandalism and sacrilege, 
of murder and persecution, Protestants 
will turn round and tell us what a liberal 
set of Christians they are ! ! Yes, you are 
very liberal, in your abuse, your hatred and 
your plunder ! ! You will even give the old 
excuse, that you robbed us for our good, 
murdered and abused us for our souls' sake. 
Was there ever impudence equal to this? 
Oh, you race of vipers, your love but equals 
your hate ; your kiss is like the kiss of Judas 
Iscariot when he betrayed our blessed Lord, 
and your embrace is as cold and as clammy 
as the coils of your spiritual father when he 
seduced mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 99 

I might fill page after page with deeds of 
torture, each one worse than the other, and 
which could not be equaled unless in the 
regions of the damned. These were the 
means adopted by the Saints of the Refor- 
mation to promulgate a new religion among 
Catholics. These are the choice spirits that 
Dr. Clark undertakes to defend ; he raises 
his polluted hand (upon which the unction 
of grace never rested), and declares, in the 
face of Heaven, that this band of hangmen 
and cut-throats were ^^ saints," the ^^ elect 
of Grod," etc., etc ! ! ! As well try to blot 
out the stars from the blue vault of night, 
as to establish them among the friends of 
the blessed Saviour. Rather, give them 
their proper title; call them the '^ hell- 
hounds" of the great Protestant rebellion! 



CHAP. YI. 

Landing of the pilgbtms — pukitan intolerance — the BiiUE 

liAWS — THE QUAKER PERSECUTION — PURITANICAL HYPOCRISY — 
WITCHES — CATHOLIC COLONY OF MARYLAND — INDIAN CONVER- 
SIONS—PROTESTANT INTRIGUE IN MARYLAND. 

DR. CLARK may charge such enormities 
to the account of Church of England 
Protestantism, but this will not help his 
cause in the least ; for, to us, all the isms 
are the same. They have all been hatched 
from the same serpent' s egg, and none have 
shown more intolerance than his own Puri- 
tan ancestors. Had Rufus W. Clark, D. D., 
lived in colonial times, he would have 
made a fine specimen of a brutal perse- 
cutor — neither Endicott nor Cotton Mather 
could begin to show half the virulence that 
this fierce reviler of Catholics would mete 
out to those who should, perchance, differ 
from him in matters of religion. It is 
really sickening to hear those Fourth of 
July orators, lay and clerical, beat the air 
and shout in laudation and fulsome praise 
the character of a band of men the most 
bigoted and sanguinary that ever trod the 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 101 

shores of the western world. Snch eulogies 
from year to year, from pulpit to pulpit, 
and through the medium of the press, re- 
flect no more the character of New Eng- 
land Puritanism, than the saintly reputa- 
tion of John the Evangelist illustrates the 
life of a Choctaw Indian. 

The first information that we generally 
receive from these garrulous declaimers is, 
that the Pilgrims were driven to the wilder- 
ness of the west by the edicts of perse- 
cution ; then follows a description of their 
sufferings on the stormy ocean ; their land- 
ing on Plymouth Rock, in midwinter ; the 
hunger and deprivation incident to a new 
settlement, etc. — and all to secure civil and 
religious freedom. 

We have investigated this subject in a 

spirit of candid inquiry, and found not a 

word of truth in such recitations. It is 

all Yankee blarney ! Neither in Secretary 

Morton's Fwe Reasons^ nor Hutchinson's 

Collections^ do we find that persecution 

had any thing to do with the landing of 
9* 



103 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 

the Puritans on Plymonth Rock. In the 
address of J. Prescott Hall, before the JSTew 
England Society, he declares, that in Hol- 
land, at the time of the departure of the 
Puritans, ''the free exercise of every man^s 
religious opinions and practice was thor- 
oughly guarded.'' One of their own party 
affirms, in his eight reasons for the depart- 
ure of the Puritans for Massachusetts, that 
''they did sweetly enjoy their church liber- 
ties," and that they left "with their own 
free choice and motion." 

If such was the fact, what need of all 
these crocodile tears concerning the landing 
of the pilgrims ? What did the privations 
of a few days amount to, in comparison 
with the advantages soon to be realized? 
They made applications to Sir Fernando 
Gorges, President of the Plymouth council, 
from whom they obtained "concessions 
equal to their desires," and "to the par- 
ticular satisfaction and content of them 
all." This shows, at least, that they were 
placed under good auspices. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 103 

Trumbull, a Puritan historian, says, that 
'Hhe uncommon mortality of 1617 had 
in a manner depopulated that part of 
the country in which they began their 
plantations. They found fields which had 
been planted, without owners; and a fine 
country round them, in some measure cul- 
tivated, without an inhabitant." They were 
enabled to subsist from the natural pro- 
ducts of the surrounding country, without 
realizing any annoyance from the poor 
Indian, whom they afterward so cruelly 
persecuted. Less than a year subsequent 
to their arrival, Edward Winslow wrote to 
his friends in England, that, ''by the good- 
ness of Grod, we are so far from want that 
we often wish you partakers of our 
plenty." This does not look like those 
pictures of misery and deprivation which 
our rhetoricians paint in the imagination 
of wondering thousands. 

We are not actuated by any feelings of 
prejudice against these stern, unyielding 
Puritans — they had many good qualities, 



104 THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 

of which, perseverance and courage were 
the most prominent ; but we are unwilling 
to give them any praise beyond what truth 
and common sense will allow. 

In England, these over-zealous men were 
loud in their denunciations of tyrannical 
power, and used every artifice to overturn 
the government, in order to establish uni- 
versal toleration which was their boast. 
What was this but a hypocritical pretense 
to entice the masses under their banner — a 
wily trick, characteristic of Protestants all 
over the world. The same spirit animates 
the sects of to-day ; when they want to carry 
a point they drown truth and rectitude by 
inflammatory appeals to freedom. But, to 
the everlasting disgrace of New England 
Puritanism, it permitted the love of domin- 
ion and the lust for gain to usurp the place 
of godliness and universal charity. One 
of their first acts of legislation was a union 
of Church and State ; then followed other 
laws, penalties and provisions, which could 
only be equaled by the fiery and blood- 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 105 

stained edicts of the worst period of ancient 
despotism. 

Watch, the drift of Protestantism, and 
yon will find an artery running through the 
whole system, uniform in all its details. It 
affects to supply the body with nourish- 
ment and vigor, until it comes to a certain 
point, when, from some undue pressure or 
untoward circumstance, inherent in the con- 
stitution, its character is changed, its use- 
fulness ceases, and, instead of a life-giving 
channel, it becomes a pool of impurities, 
noxious and deadly in. its influences. 

English Puritans strenuously opposed 
the established Church, and denounced 
kingly rule, until they found a fitting place 
to exercise that liberty of conscience which 
was their boast, their desire, and their chief 
aim ; but selfishness changed their ideas 
completely, and they were no sooner settled 
in their new abode, than their own establish- 
ment began framing laws, concerning mat- 
ters of faith, whose rigor and bigotry had 
scarcely a parallel. They were guilty of 



106 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

worse severities toward others, for conscience 
sake, than were ever measured out to them. 
They commenced their acts against heresy 
in 1631, and thus these meek and pious 
Puritans forgot their ^^Anti-Christian bond- 
age," and from peaceful lambs they became 
ravening wolves, thirsting for the blood of 
their fellow creatures. Baptists, Roman 
Catholics, and Quakers, came in for their 
share of Puritan liberty^ of whij)pings, 
lashings, banishments, prisons, and the gib- 
bet, and all because they claimed to worship 
God according to the dictates of their own 
conscience. They wielded^the power of their 
Church '' constantly," says Chief Justice 
Story, ^^by the arm of civil government." 

In 1629, at Salem, Mass., they drew up a 
solemn covenant with this pledge, to wit : 
''We do bind ourselves, in the presence of 
God, to walk together in all His ways, 
according as He is pleased to reveal himself 
to us in His Blessed Word of Truth ; nor 
will we deal harshly or oppressingly with 
any, wherein we are the Lord's stewards." 



THE QUESTIO]^ SOLVED. 107 

Now we will see how they kept their 
covenant ! Fines were imposed for absence 
from their worship, and they levied taxes 
to support "a lawful, orthodox, and godly 
ministry." They passed laws against the 
keeping of Christmas, holidays or any other 
festival, — fined all who publicly found fault 
with their statutes, and placed persons in 
the stocks who denied their right to com- 
pel all to attend congregational worship. 
If any one possessed a book not orthodox, 
he was heavily fined, and if a woman' s 
tongue, which they considered very loose 
and unruly, should say a word contrary to 
the established laws, it was placed in the 
cleft of a stick until she mended her man- 
ners. They allowed but one printing office 
in the whole colony, from which issued a 
muzzled newspaper. Upwards of eighty 
opinions were reported to the godly censors, 
as being " notorious impieties and damnable 
heresies." The Puritanical parsons were 
the inquisitors, and had to be consulted 
before any law could be passed, and they 



108 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

nsed the pulpit upon all occasions, to carry 
out their likes and dislikes. No man could 
fill office without their sanction, directly or 
indirectly, and they pried even into the 
practices of social life, so tl^at nothing 
escaped their vigilance. Dr. Morse says, 
^'they prohibited the use of tobacco, under 
a penalty ; but at length some of the clergy 
fell into the practice of smoking, and tobacco, 
by an act of government, was set at liberty." 
Bancroft says, 'Hhat the elders instigated 
and sustained the government in its worst 
cruelties." They went even beyond their 
own jurisdiction to take vengeance, for in 
1643 we find Samuel Grorton and others not 
belonging to the Massachusetts colony, 
marched from Rhode Island to Boston, at 
the point of the bayonet, and condemned to 
death for holding '^ blasphemous and wicked 
errors. ' ' Many were compelled to wear irons 
on one leg, work like slaves, and then sent 
to England, deprived of their possessions, 
their chattels and their goods. 
These Puritans were as false in their pro- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 109 

fessions as they were wicked in their actions; 
they persecuted those for whom they pro- 
fessed friendship and high regard ; they in- 
tercepted private letters, and read them in 
general court, on the slightest pretext. They 
instituted a test act, odious and detestable, 
so that no one could vote, hold office or 
property, without being members of the 
Puritan church. They scoffed at the right 
of petition, and laughed, if a Puritan could 
laugh, at any one vain enough to suppose 
that justice could be found outside the pale 
of Plymouth colony. If a man but opened 
his mouth in his own defense, or asked a 
right to which he thought he was entitled, he 
was at once branded as a public disturber, 
fined and imprisoned. 

But the most barefaced of all was, that at 
the very time in which they were visiting 
such enormities upon all those who in any 
way differed from them, morally and soci- 
ally, the General Court appointed a com- 
mittee to frame anew some of their laws, in 

order to let autocratical England know their 
10 



110 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 

utter disaffection to arbitrary government." 
There is Protestant consistency for yon ! ! ! 

The next sect who laid claim to principles 
of religions liberty were the Baptists, who 
were terribly persecuted by the iron hand 
of Puritan supremacy. They made great 
demonstrations of liberality, talked loudly 
of ^'Jerusalem's prosperity and Babylon's 
destruction," and declared that '' earthly 
authority belongeth to earthly kings, but 
spiritual authority belongeth to that spir- 
itual king, who is King of kings." 

The moment the fneek and pious Puritans 
heard this declaration, that moment they 
made a fell swoop on the Baptists — immer- 
sion itself could not hide them. Pulpits 
thundered anathema against them for hold- 
ing ''damnable opinions," so that they had 
to scamper, or become submissive to the 
mild persuasive power of the cat-o'-nine- 
tails. Poor Thomas Painter, for refusing 
to have his child sprinkled, was handed 
over to the man with the knotted whip, 
although they would have preferred a fine, 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. Ill 

to help fill their godly coffers ; but Win- 
throp says '^he was very poor, so that no 
other but corporeal punishment could be 
inflicted upon him," he was ordered to be 
publicly whipped. 

I will not go further into the abominable 
acts of legislation, exclusiveness and hypoc- 
risy, which marked the early career of New 
England Puritanism ; the statutes against 
heresy alone filled seven large and closely 
printed pages. Suffice it to give a few of the 
persecutions that were instituted and put in 
force against all those who were so unfortu- 
nate as to differ from puritanical orthodoxy. 

In 1666, before any laws against Quakers 
were enacted, two members of that peace- 
able society, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, 
arrived at Boston. They were immediately 
seized, their trunks and baggage diligently 
searched, and their books and papers carried 
to the market-place and publicly burned by 
the hangman, without due process of law. 
The good ladies were brought before Belling- 
ham, who at once committed them to prison 



112 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

because they addressed Mm after the man- 
ner of their order, with tTiee and ffiou ! 
Their bodies were minutely examined to see 
if they had witch marks, no respect was 
paid them even on account of their sex, and 
they remained in confinement five weeks, 
almost starved to death. Upall interested 
himself in their behalf, when they were 
taken from their prisons and sent back to 
where they came from. It was well for 
them that Endicott was not there at the time, 
for he afterwards declared, that '^had he 
known it, he would have had them scourged 
before they left." 

Others of the same society followed, not 
knowing the fate of the poor women. They 
were presented to the governor on their 
arrival, when the following advice was given 
them, ^'Take ye heed not to break our 
ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to 
stretch by a halter." The Captain of the 
ship that brought these men from England 
was obliged to take them back again at his 
own expense. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 113 

Poor old Upall, himself a Puritan, because 
of a few remarks he had made on the unrea- 
sonableness of such actions, was cast into 
prison, fined and banished, in his old age, 
from the colony. On his waj to Rhode 
Island he stopped with an Indian Chief to 
whom he told his pitiful story, and to which 
the Indian replied, ^' What a God have the 
English, who deal so with one another about 
their God." 

In 1658, the most severe enactments were 

passed against Quakers, and it is horrible 

to recount the severe persecutions inflicted 

upon them for conscience' sake. They were 

apprehended without warrant, tried and 

sentenced to be expelled the country, or 

else suffer death. They were whipped, 

kicked, buffeted, branded, fined, put in 

stocks and cages, imprisoned and hung. 

They were styled '^pernicious," '' cursed," 

' ' heretics, " " ranters, " " rogues ' ' and 

'' vagabonds." They could not dispose of 

their property by will ; they were stripped 

to the waist, both sexes, for absenting them- 
10* 



114 THE QUESTIOiiT SOLVED. 

selves from the ' ' law-church, ' ' and ' ' stretch- 
ed rack-wise npon the wheels of a great 
gun, or tied to a cart's tail and dragged 
through the most public streets of town 
after town until they were beyond the 
bounds of the Commonwealth, and lashed 
as they went along. They were turned out 
at the dead of night amid frost and snow ; 
they were branded R. (rogue), and H. (here- 
tic) ; their ears were cropped, tongues bored 
through ; they were sentenced to be sold as 
slaves, banished, and often hung and left 
unburied." 

Who were the principal agents in this 
hellish drama of blood and cruelty ? Who, 
but men of Dr. Clark's stamp ! They pro- 
fessed Christian charity, while their actions 
would do honor to Lucifer and his sable 
host. 

Rev. John Wilson stood high among the 
Puritan saints, and was ''counted blessed 
beyond his fellows" ; hear him in a council 
convened to punish three men and a woman 
who would not believe in the ''blessed doc- 



THE QUESTIOI^T SOLVED. 115 

trine," as preached by the pious divines of 
of Plymouth colony. ''Hang them," said 
he, ''else," — drawing his finger across his 
throat — ! you may imagine the rest. As 
these poor people were led out to the scaf- 
fold, Wilson marched along at the same time, 
insulting them as they went, like a fiend of 
the bottomless pit, glorying in their misery, 
which he was potent in consummating ; and 
when Mary Dyer ascended the ladder, he 
actually handed his own handkerchief to 
the hangman to pull over her eyes ! 

They ordered some to be chained to a log, 
without food or drink, through the coldest 
days, and in the most public place, until 
they were frost-bitten ; others had their ears 
nailed to a tree on Boston Common, and 
could not be liberated without either tearing 
away the flesh or remaining until mortifica- 
tion had set in. 

K a Catholic priest entered the colony, he 
could be apprehended without due form of 
law, and hung to the first tree or post. We 
need not speak of the fearful penalties which 



116 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

were inflicted upon all the nnfortnnate old 
women, who were at all singular in manner 
or appearance ; for such there was either a 
fagot or a halter. But the unkindest cut of 
all was, that after they had executed many 
of their criminals, they found out they were 
by no means guilty ! For all such perse- 
cuting devices, they consoled one another 
by quoting some text of Scripture, in justi- 
fication of their heartless conduct. Thus 
the Bible was made to serve every conceiv- 
able act of tyranny and oppression. 

The code of laws drawn up by Roger 
Williams and his friends was a vast im- 
provement on other Colonial enactments ; 
still the old leaven was manifest in the gov- 
ernment of the good people of Rhode 
Island — they tolerated all religions save the 
Catholic. 

For the full, free and perfect expression 
of civil and religious liberty, it was reserved 
for Catholic Maryland, to take the lead of 
all the other colonies. Within the limits 
of that glorious old commonwealth, every 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 117 

man could sit under his own vine and fig- 
tree, and none to molest or make him afraid. 

History records no greater persecution 
against any class of people, than the English 
government put in force against its Catholic 
subjects. Those who had separated from 
the established Church fled to other climes, 
but the poor Catholics were so impoverished 
by penal laws that they could not emigrate ; 
besides they disliked to leave forever that 
old land which was dedicated to the religion 
of their fathers, and they clung with fond 
affection to the sites of their old altars now 
desecrated and in ruins. 

Lord Baltimore, however, who had re- 
nounced the religion of Henry and Elizabeth 
to become a child of Jesus Christ, and of 
His Church, took compassion on the suffer- 
ings of his co-religionists, and resolved on a 
plan to mitigate their misery by establish- 
ing a colony in North America, where 
Catholics might enjoy a freedom of con- 
science, unknown to them in England. 
When he had accomplished this undertak- 



118 THE QUESTIOJS" SOLVED. 

ing, lie formed a code of laws that will for- 
ever place Mm in the first rank of just and 
wise lawgivers. When the Ark and the 
Dove (beautiful names), landed their cargo 
of poor, panting, bleeding and abused Catho- 
lics, with the faith of martyrs, and the love 
of Calvary' s Blessed Victim in their hearts, 
they planted a cross, sacred emblem of sal- 
vation, and knelt them down in the shade 
of venerable trees, beneath the blue canopy 
of heaven, while the holy sacrifice of the 
Mass was offered up to Almighty God, for 
their safe deliverance from the perils of the 
ocean and the fiery persecutions of the 
Pharaohs of Gfreat Britain. 

They next made a friendly visit to the 
Piscataways, with whom they formed an 
alliance, not with a Bible in one hand and a 
sword in the other, like the self-sufficient 
saints of the Mayflower, and their descend- 
ants, but in a spirit of Christian charity. 

Lord Baltimore and his two missionary 
Fathers converted the tribes, in and around 
their new settlement, and Chilomacon, king 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 119 

of the Piscataways, was solemnly baptized 
July Sth, 1640. By the honesty, fair deal- 
ing and charity of the colonists, they sur- 
rounded themselves with friendly Indians, 
who embraced, with child-like simplicity, 
the Christian faith. 

How was it, on the other hand, with our 
godly Plymouth settlers? They deceived 
the poor Indians, by all manner of double- 
dealing and heartless conspiracy ; they gave 
them strong drink, and while under the in- 
fluence of it, the poor creatures bartered 
away their lands and possessions without 
an equivalent. Massasoit, chief of the tribe 
that first welcomed the pilgrims, and re- 
ceived them hospitably into their wigwams, 
never embraced the Puritan faith. After 
his death, his son Philip was robbed of his 
territories, many of his tribe were murdered 
and he himself driven into exile, far away 
from the hunting grounds of his fathers. 
There was not a single tribe converted to 
New England orthodoxy ; on the contrary 
many of the Indians were hung, others 



120 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

butchered in cold blood, their villages 
burned, while not a few were driven out 
among unfriendly tribes or sold into slavery. 

Peace, quietness, and religious zeal per- 
vaded the colony of Marylqind, until some 
Puritan refugees from Virginia sought pro- 
tection and a home there. The Catholics, 
little suspecting the designs of these dan- 
gerous men, took no thought for their own 
safety, having full confidence in the power 
of their charter. In 1643, however, in the 
absence of Governor Calvert, a rebellion 
was fomented through the agency and deep 
laid schemes of the new comers, led on by 
Ingle and Claiborne. These traitors to the 
cause of truth and humanity took supreme 
control of the colony, banished all who 
remained faithful to Lord Baltimore, re- 
duced others to abject poverty, arrested 
the missionaries, and sent them back to 
England in chains. 

Tell me, now, you vain-glorious boasters, 
who take pride in every thing ^^ great, 
glorious, and free," are you not assuming 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 121 

too much in claiming for your sires virtues 
which they never possessed, and deeds 
which they never performed ? 

What a conceited specimen of humanity 
is your average Yankee preacher ; he fancies 
himself a match for any body and every 
body ; he can see through a stone wall, 
while his neighbor, should he be a Catho- 
lic, cannot see the length of his nose! 
His geese are all swans, while his neigh- 
bor's ducks are veritable toads; his eyes 
are clear as an eagle' s, while his neighbor' s 
are dull as an owlet' s ; he could swallow a 
Roman Doctor of Divinity with as much 
ease as a sea-gull would a tad-pole ! He 
possesses more knowledge in his sconce, 
after a year's study in a New England 
Academy, than the combined wisdom of 
the seven hundred bishops of the Ecumeni- 
cal Council now in Rome ! He is a walk- 
ing library of science and theology ; he 
knows the beginning and the end of every 
thing that was, is, and is to be ; he is per- 
mitted to know what nobody else ever 
11 



122 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

knew ; lie is, in fine, a perfect nonesuch ! 
After all this arrogance, he very often 
comes out a minus quantity ; he enters the 
field of polemics like a lion, and comes out 
like a whipped kitten! His- powers of in- 
vention are inexhaustible ; if beaten by the 
facts of history or the sword of logic, he 
invents new themes and fresh accusations 
against his opponent, until, at last, he 
comes down to a regular system of relig- 
ious black-mailing ! 



I 



CHAP. vn. 

The blessings of education when accompanied by beligion — 
pagan education— the establishment of the chubch — its 
benign influence on society — the object of education — 
eably training of youth. 

ONE of the choicest blessings given to 
mankind is a good, thorough educa- 
tion, guided by correct religious principles. 
It is religion, after all, that softens the 
obdurate heart, polishes and refines man's 
rude nature, and hallows and sanctifies 
his whole being. It is the spark which 
illumines the soul, warms the affections, 
and sheds a lustre over the whole charac- 
ter. Education, without religion, is not 
conducive to the real happiness of man. 
It too often puffs him up with pride and 
vanity ; it makes him selfish and egotisti- 
cal ; it causes him to refer the products of 
the genius which God has given him to 
some superior or inherent quality which 
he fancies to be peculiarly his own, so 
that, instead of humbly acknowledging his 
indebtedness to the Author of every good 



124 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

and perfect gift, he lianghtily seeks the 
homage and reverence of his fellow men. 

To impart instruction is a very sacred 
office, and ought not to be intrusted to the 
careless, the bigot, or the unbeliver ; rather 
should it be to the work of religious teach- 
ers, who know and feel the weakness of 
our humanity, and our dependence on a 
power superior to the natural instincts of 
our own nature. If you instil into the 
expanding mind of youth nothing but the 
idea of a gross materialism, your labor is 
vain and fruitless. 

Let us turn over the pages of history, 
and what do we find but the vilest im- 
morality, degradation, and slavery, spring- 
ing out from ancient Grecian and Roman 
civilization, which our modern historians, 
lecturers, and preachers admire so much, 
and with great show of learning, and not 
a little bombast^ deal out to their admiring 
audiences in glowing eulogy ; but not a 
word of the struggles of the Catholic 
Church, amid the raging torrents of perse- 



THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 125 

cution, with which kings and tyrants 
threatened to engulf her; bnt, thanks to 
that augnst Being who preserved her, de- 
spite the malice of her enemies, she still 
lives, fresh and vigorous, pursuing her 
sacred vocation, that of teaching and pro- 
claiming man' s duty to his God. 

In the days of Pericles, Thucydides, and 
Sophocles, the most classic of the ancients, 
the brilliant Euripides, Zeno, and the divine 
Phidias, the public school was a theatre 
of vice, where the worst instincts of the 
human heart were nurtured. The animal 
passions became so gross, that cannibalism 
was not only practiced, but taught. The 
Stoics deemed it not unlawful to eat human 
flesh, and even permitted children to de- 
vour their own parents. 

In the age of Rome's greatness, Julius 

Caesar and Augustus were patrons of the 

arts and sciences, and representatives of 

the civilization of their time, yet, with all 

their learning, elegance, and grandeur, their 

depravity sounded the lowest depths. 
11* 



126 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

Julius Caesar knew nothing of the divine 
attribnte of mercy. Read his character as 
portrayed by Suetonius, and then boast of 
the splendors of the golden age ! Sitting 
on his throne of gold, he would, with his 
own hands, pluck out men's eyes, break 
their limbs, cut their throats, and have 
their bodies thrown to the dogs and birds 
of prey. Behold, on the Ides of March, 
altars erected in honor of Julius Caesar, 
stakes and inflammable materials made 
ready, and three hundred young men, the 
flower of Rome's nobility, are slaughtered 
without reserve on that infernal day. 

What has been told of Greece and Rome, 
may be said of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, 
Lydia, Persia, Carthage, and the whole of 
Asia Minor. Blood and carnage, cruelty 
and oppression, marked every step of their 
progress, until all vestige of primitive truth 
had disappeared from the people. 

No one can deny the material civilization 
of those classic ages. Science produced 
ingenious inventions, and noble and vast 



THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 127 

discoveries — history, eloquence, poetry, 
architecture, music, painting, and sculpture 
flourished with amazing sublimity ; yet 
what did they accomplish for poor human- 
ity? Nothing, absolutely nothing. The 
standard of decency was reduced to the 
level of the brute creation, and below it. 
Homer never sang a strain of purity, nor 
VirgU a plea for mercy. Woman was 
debased, childhood forsaken and cruelly 
butchered, the aged and infirm cast into the 
Tiber, or converted into targets to be shot 
at. The youth of both sexes were demoral- 
ized to the most shameful degree. 

This is but a mere glimmer of the condi- 
tion of Pagan society down to the establish- 
ment of that Church which was founded 
upon a rock, and to which our blessed Lord 
gave the promise that the gates of hell 
should never prevail. 

And now began the healing of the nations, 
the regeneration of mankind. The sun- 
shine of peace dawned upon the quivering, 
persecuted heart of humanity, and the long 



128 THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 

night of Grentile barbarism began to recede 
before the light of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Catholic charity began to extend 
its benign influence everywhere in spite of 
heathen opposition and the prestige of the 
powerful ones of the earth ; compassion 
and benevolence went forth side by side, 
instructing the ignorant, giving hope and 
consolation to the helpless and forsaken, 
and thus establishing a new era of peace 
and love throughout Europe and the East. 
Blessed be God that we live under this dis- 
pensation, and forbid it that our earth 
should ever again be cursed with a civiliza- 
tion without a Christ in it, as the teachers 
of modern infidelity are laboring hard (per- 
haps unconsciously) to bring about. False 
teachers are abroad in the land, with a lie 
in their mouths, deceiving the people ; try- 
ing to seduce Catholics away from the faith 
which was once given to the Saints, and 
otherwise corrupting what is pure and holy 
in society ; and all in the name of liberty 
and progress ! In every age the Church 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 129 

has been attacked by Pagan philosopliers, 
Jews,* Infidels and heretics of every grade 
and condition, from Simon the Sorcerer, 
down to Rufus W. Clark, D. D., of Albany ; 
and yet she stands a tower of strength 
against the assanlts of the enemy — " a pil- 
lar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by 
night." What but the power of Jehovah 
sustained her despite the wasting hand of 
Time, while thrones and principalities have 
passed away like things that are told ? Her 
fair proportions might for a time be shaded 
with gloom, and to human vision lost to 
view ; but, like the glorious sun in the 
heavens, she emerges from the surrounding 
darkness, and sheds a warmth and a lustre 
over the face of Nature, bringing faith and 
hope and consolation to the inhabitants of 
earth. 

The chief object of education is to make 
man better and happier in this life, and to 
fit him for Heaven. As well might you ex- 
pect pure water from an impure fountain, as 
to find a well-cultivated, happy mind in a 



130 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

school not established npon a religious 
basis. The old proverb, ^Hrain up a child 
in the way he should go, and when he is old 
he will not depart from it," is as true now 
as when it fell from the lips of King Solo- 
mon. The world has given us proofs innu- 
merable of its verity. When Moses was 
brought up in the royal court of Pharaoh, 
amid the splendors of nobility, surrounded 
by the wisdom and learning of Egyptian 
philosophers, what was it that ennobled his 
mind, purified his heart, and shielded him 
from the contaminating influences which sur- 
rounded him, if it was not the voice of God, 
speaking to his young heart, through the 
person of his mother, who not only nourished 
him, but instilled into his mind the faith of 
Abraham, and the promises of the Almighty; 
so that when he grew to man' s estate he re- 
fused to be called the son of Pharaoh's 
daughter ? Rather would he suffer affliction 
with the people of Grod, for a time, than 
enjoy the luxury of an idolatrous court. 
Now, behold the contrast : King Nebu- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 131 

cliadnezzar, nourished by a wild goat, grew 
up with low animal passions, perpetrating 
all manner of sin and crime against Grod, 
untU, by a just judgment from Heaven, he 
was turned from a royal palace to associate 
with the beasts of the field, the companions 
of his early life. 

The Emperor Caligula, though born of re- 
putable parents, was nursed by a rude mas- 
culine woman, with brutish strength, and a 
bearded face, ferocious and vindictive in 
disposition. The child partook of her de- 
pravity, and all history records no greater 
monster. 

Youth is by far the most important period 
in the life of man ; it is the season of early 
impressions, when character is formed for 
good or for evil, for honor or for shame. 
How necessary, therefore, to shield it from 
the contamination of sinful actions, and 
make it acquainted with the science of sal- 
vation, which consists in knowing, loving 
and serving God. 



CHAP. VIII. 

Catholics do not desire the destruction op the public school 

SYSTEM — their OBJECTIONS TO IT AS IT NOW STANDS — THE BIBLE 
TOO SACRED TO BE PROFANED IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM — CLARK ON 
CATHOLIC IGNORANCE — BANCROFT'S OPINIONS — CATHOLIC AND 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS — PROTESTANT KNOWLEDGE OF THE CATHO- 
LIC CHURCH — WHY CATHOLICS OBJECT TO READING THE BIBLE 
IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS — CATHOLICS NOT WILLING TO SEPARATE SECU- 
LAR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION — DR. CLARK AND THE CINCIN- 
NATI SCHOOL BOARD — HE MISREPRESENTS THE CATHOLIC CLAIM 
— OPINION OF HARTFORD COURANT AND OTHER PAPERS ON THE 
"SCHOOL QUESTION "— PROTESTANT MINISTERS EXCITING THM 
PEOPLE TO TUMULT — THE WRATH OF THE "OBSERVER MAN "— 
DR. CLARK AS A WEATHER-COCK — *' WHY DO CATHOLICS COME 
AMONG US?" 

CATHOLICS do not wish to ^'batter 
down" or demolish the public schools, 
as your sectarian leaders assert ; they only 
wish the public school system, which is as 
much theirs as yours, to be so modified as 
to meet the wishes of all. We object to 
having Protestant and infidel teachers to in- 
struct our children ; we object to text-books 
which contain sentiments not in unison 
with our theology, or reflecting on our 
principles; we object to lazy parsons, un- 
authorized laymen, and sickly sentimental- 
ists, obtruding themselves into the school- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 133 

room, where our Catholic children are 
seated, and filling their yonng, susceptible 
minds with false notions of religious educa- 
tion, and material progress ; and we object 
to the reading and studying of a corrupted 
Bible, or allowing our children to interpret 
it, according to their fancy, as Protest- 
ants do. 

I have been, myself, in schools where the 
Bible was made a text-book, and its study 
imperative on every scholar in the institu 
tion, and yet I failed to discover that it 
made the students any better or more 
moral than where it was excluded alto- 
gether. In my opinion it made them worse, 
for ''familiarity breeds contempt." It used 
to grieve me to witness the uses it was 
occasionally made to serve — from lighting 
a cigar or a fire, to the most menial office. 
I have often seen it side by side with the 
most obscene and scandalous publications 
that ever issued from a vile press. Many 
a time have I observed young boys pick 

out passages in the Canticles of Solomon, 
12 



134 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

and pass them over to tlie opposite sex, 
and vice versa. I was only yonng then, 
and never heard the question of the ^' Bible 
in the Common Schools" debated; but 
young as I was, I could not help coming 
to the conclusion, that had the holy book 
been read only in the family circle, by way 
of narrative or christian history, and its 
sacred character interpreted only by Grod's 
ministers, it would have been safer and 
more conducive to public and private 
morals ; and both youth and old age would 
have a greater respect for it. 

In refutation of Dr. Clark's calumny con- 
cerning the universal ignorance of Cathol- 
icism, by which he insinuates that the 
Church opposes the diffusion of useful 
knowledge, I need only point to the Catho- 
lic Almanac for the past year, and it will 
not only surprise his hearers to read therein 
what the church is doing for education, but 
make them ashamed of a man who could 
make such lying statements. 

Nearly all the religious orders of this 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 135 

Continent are engaged in tlie work of 
education. From British America to the 
Grulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, in the cities and on the plains, 
along the mountain ranges, and down the 
Pacific slopes, they give every variety of 
education from the highest branches of 
philosophy to the common rudiments of 
knowledge. 

George Bancroft, a son of Massachusetts, 
and from whom Catholics could not expect 
much favor, affirms, in his valuable history 
of the United States, that '^religious zeal, 
not less than commercial ambition, had in- 
fluenced France to recover Canada ; and 
Champlain its governor, whose imperishable 
name will rival with posterity the fame of 
Smith and Hudson, ever disinterested and 
compassionate, full of honor and probity, of 
ardent devotion and burning zeal, esteemed 
the salvation of a soul worth more than the 
conquest of an empire." 

Long before the stony-hearted Puritans 
placed foot on what Bishop Spaulding calls 



136 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

the ^^ Yankee Blarney Stone," the faithful 
ministers of the cross planted missions in 
the eastern part of Maine. The poor Fran- 
ciscans, with their lives in their hands, pene- 
trated into the land of the Mohawks and 
Wyandots, not protected by American 
counsels, or under the muzzles of English 
guns, like many of our modern sort, who 
have gone to India and China. 

The Catholic missionary goes forth in the 
name of the Gfod of Hosts, with his crucifix 
in his hand, and the word of divine power 
in his heart, willing to lay down his own 
life to save the souls of others. 

Poor Father Le Caron led the life of a 
beggar, partaking of the charity of the sav- 
ages as he journeyed through the wilderness 
of the newly discovered country, passing 
from one hostile tribe to another, sowing the 
seeds of christian truth and love among a 
race of people at once savage, powerful and 
warlike, until he gained the great waters of 
Niagara, and took up his abode with the 
Hurons. 



THE QUESTIOItT SOLVED. 137 

Bancroft says, that ^Ho confirm the mis- 
sions the first measure was to establish a 
college in New France, and the parents of 
the Marquis de Gamache, pleased with his 
pious importunity, assented to his entering 
the order of Jesuits, and added from their 
ample fortunes, the means of endowing a 
Seminary for education at Quebec." Thus 
we see that Catholics established the first 
institution of learning in America. Let us 
make a few more extracts from Bancroft. 

^'The fires of charity being enkindled, the 
Duchess D'Aguillon, aided by her uncle. 
Cardinal Richelieu, endowed a public hos- 
pital dedicated to the Son of God, whose 
blood was shed in mercy for all mankind." 
^' From the hospital nuns of Dieppe, there 
were selected the youngest twenty-two, to 
brave the famine and rigors of Canada, in 
their patient mission of benevolence." 

" The same religious enthusiasm inspiring 

Madame de la Peltier, a young and opulent 

widow of Alengon, she, with the aid of a 

nun of Dieppe, and two others from Tours, 
12* 



138 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

established the Ursuline Convent for girls. 
^ ^ ^ The venerable ash-tree still lives 
beneath which Mary of the Incarnation, so 
famed for chastened piety, genius and good 
judgment toiled for the education of the 
Huron children." 

By a like spirit, and after the same man- 
ner, have Catholics continued their mis- 
sionary labors, combining education and 
religion, down to the present day. Their 
institutions are conducted by a self-sacri- 
ficing class of teachers, who have given up 
the world and all its allurements to devote 
themselves in an especial manner to glorify 
God ; to secure their own salvation, and to 
instruct the ignorant and the depraved not 
only in what is useful in society, but to 
point out to them the ways of truth and 
holiness, the only road to Heaven. Beau- 
tiful, indeed, is such a life, and highly to be 
commended ! 

And now, dear reader, think you that 
such noble sacrifices are made to corrupt 
the heart and brutalize the mind, or compel 



THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 139 

'^Tiniyersal ignorance," as the Reverend 
libeler, of the Dutch Church, asserts? 

To hear this man rant about education^ 
one would suppose that Providence consti- 
tuted him grand censor of the educational 
system. He makes one assertion after 
another, all of which are nothing more than 
cool assumptions ; he never inquires about 
the right or wrong of a thing, but pitches in 
like a drunken bully, indiscriminately, to 
exhibit his strength at knock down argu- 
ments. He must entertain a poor opinion 
of the well educated portion of his flock, 
when he offers them such devil's venison. 
They cannot help knowing that such accu- 
sations are a fraud, and will not go down 
with any kind of relish ; still the majority 
will accept these absurdities and swallow 
them down stock and fluke. 

It astonishes me to think how wofuUy 
ignorant Protestants are, concerning the 
affairs of the Catholic Church ; what she 
has done and is now doing for the welfare 
of society; unless they have adopted the 



140 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLYED. 

system of the old Gfreeks, who believed in 
anything and everything bnt the truth. 

Protestantism is only a man-constructed 
system, take it as you will ; it is of human 
authority, liable to err, and cannot, there- 
fore, claim Christ for its foundation. 
Catholics, on the contrary, can prove their 
Church to be that repository of divine 
truth over w^hich the Holy Spirit hovers, 
giving her light and holiness whereby to 
teach and govern with authority ; deceiving 
no man, and claiming obedience from all. 
They cheerfully accept her kind offices, 
having full confidence in her teachings and 
declarations. N'ot so with Protestants, they 
keep floating about on an ocean of doubt 
and uncertainty — they have no faith, they 
have only opinions, and opinions differ. 

It is neither fair nor honest in Dr. Clark 
to prejudice the people, by wrongfully in- 
forming them that it is the object of Catho- 
lics to exclude the Bible from the common 
schools ; and that " the priests would 
rather have the children grow up assassins 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 141 

than allow them to have recourse to the 
Bible." Now, if the people of the First 
Church have any regard for truth, they 
never would pay a man a large salary to 
uphold falsehood and calumny. 

I do not suppose, for a moment, that they 
are so utterly blinded by this man's state- 
ments, as to believe with him that there is 
any Catholic priest in the world, who would 
prefer a little child to grow up an assassin, 
rather than to read the Bible. A man who 
would make such an assertion as that is no 
better than a murderer himself. If his people 
can stand such lies, their consciences must 
be as dry as autumn leaves, else they are as 
wicked as he is, and partake of his crime. 

It is true, that both priest and people are 
opposed to reading what they deem a 
corrupted version of the Bible, and the 
singing of Protestant hymns in schools 
which they are taxed to support. What 
right have Protestants, any more than 
Catholics or Jews, to assume to themselves 
privileges which the Constitution does not 



143 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

allow them? Is it fair for Protestants to 
insist on giving a religions bias to a school 
where the majority are Catholics, as is the 
case in onr large cities ? Catholic parents are 
bonnd in conscience, to train n^ their child- 
ren in the faith which they themselves pro- 
fess, nntil they arrive at the nse of reason ; 
and hence, their great objection to any sys- 
tem, pnblic or private, which wonld tend to 
weaken their belief, or place the subject of 
religion unfairly before them. 

For the same reason they object to institu- 
tions of learning, where religion is entirely 
excluded. They hold that education with- 
out religion, as before proved, is unreliable 
if not wicked — they hold that moral and 
religious principles are the true basis of 
human society, and the earlier their child- 
ren are so instructed, the better for their 
own being, and the welfare of the State. 

This is the whole matter in a few simple 
words, and if Protestants attach any other 
motive to the Catholic claim, they either 
misunderstand it or willfully corrupt the 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 143 

aims of the Cliiircli. We know and appre- 
ciate the value to the State of a good sys- 
tem of public schools, and it has always 
been a cardinal doctrine in the economy of 
the Church, to combine religious instruction 
with secular education, feeling assured that 
upon such a basis, the nation is most secure. 
Man is naturally a religious being, but sub- 
ject as he is to the corrupting influences of 
his own weak nature, and the depravity of 
society, the training of his youth must have 
a religious bearing, in order to be beneficial 
and lasting. This is why Catholics have been 
making such efforts to establish schools of 
their own, and for which they have made very 
great sacrifices. They prefer their children 
to have a small share of worldly knowledge, 
with sound religious principles, than to have 
them converted into polished Pagans, with 
their heads full of science and no love of 
God in their hearts. 

Dr. Clark has allowed himself to become 
so inflated lately, on the " school question," 
that he swelled out like a balloon, but the 



144 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

least prick of common sense would let out 
all the gas, and his great swelling words of 
vanity wonld vanish into thin air, leaving 
nothing behind save a bad odor. 

The action of the school board of Cincin- 
nati, has been haunting him like a ghost, so 
that his brain has become addled. He rants 
and raves in' his pulpit concerning the ques- 
tion of the '^ Bible in the common schools " 
so much, that if another city would follow 
the example of Cincinnati the Doctor would 
either have apoplexy or be sent to the State 
Lunatic Asylum. 

The reverend gentleman is not just in his 
allusions to the Western Watchman. Why 
did he not quote the whole article from that 
paper (which for the most part was ironical) 
instead of culling passages from it, and 
stringing them together as best suited his 
purpose, giving a wrong interpretation of 
said article, and changing the sense entirely, 
thereby doing great injustice to the editor 
of that paper. 

German infidelity had more to do with 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 145 

casting out the Bible and all other religious 
instruction from the schools of the ''Queen 
City," than Catholics had. The latter, if 
compelled to send their children to public 
schools, would much rather retain the 
Protestant Bible than have all religious in- 
struction banished from them. 

None but a madman would dare to make 
such assertions as Dr. Clark has lately. He 
has not put the question fairly before his 
people, he was so one-sided in the whole 
matter, that it was a wonder he did not tip 
over. As we have said before, the commu- 
ntiy being composed of different denomina- 
tions having the same political rights, the 
government is bound to protect them ; so 
that Catholics and Protestants are on an 
equal footing before the law, and the State 
is obliged to protect both in the free exercise 
of their religious tenets. This being the 
case. Catholics have a perfect right to make 
demands upon the Legislature to alter any 
enactments which curtail them in the free 
exercise of their faith. The school question 
13 



146 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

with ns is a matter of conscience. But the 
Doctor says, if you grant such privileges 
to Eomanists you must grant them to all 
other denominations, if they desire it. This 
does not follow, for the Church views all 
sects, from Calvinism to Atheism, as pro- 
testing against the religion of Jesus Christ, 
so that all the sectaries are Protestants to 
us. What difference does it make to Prot- 
estants if their children are educated with 
spiritualists, infidels and nothingarians — 
they all go on the progressive principle, 
and the public school as now constituted 
is just the thing. 

The chief aim, however, of Protestants is 
to use the State against the Church, hence 
they cry out ''public instruction," as a 
blind to destroy Catholic faith. It is a 
hatred of the Church that makes them so 
clamorous for public instruction as it is now 
devised. If they profess such a love for 
Jesus Christ and His inspired word, how 
comes it that they fraternize so easily with 
Unitarians, Universalists, and Free Thinkers 



THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 147 

of every grade ? If they desire the perpe- 
tuity of the Christian religion, let them lay 
down the arms of their warfare and submit 
to the mild authority of the Holy Roman 
and Apostolic Church — listen attentively 
to her sweet and gentle counsels — obey with 
Christian fortitude all her mandates, and 
enlist with us under the banner of the cross 
in making common cause against infidelity, 
which threatens to demoralize society. As 
it is now, Protestants are only strengthen- 
ing the citadel of unbelief, and in no way 
can they accomplish that result better than 
in seeking to make the State, instead of the 
Church, the educator of the rising genera- 
tion. 

There are many able and right minded 
Protestants who concur with us in the belief 
that religion in society is its only safeguard, 
and to make that sentiment popular and 
lasting it must be diffused into the common 
schools. Many of them, too, call for a 
modification of the school system, in order 
to relieve Catholics from a Protestant or 
infidel ascendancy. 



148 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

A writer in the Hartford Courant speaks 
to its readers as follows: '^Although a 
Protestant, I sympathize very much with 
those honest Romanists who deplore the 
present purely secular aspect of our public 
schools, and believe with them, that the 
shutting out of ethics and Christian doc- 
trine from them makes us virtual pagans, 
and gives the support of the State to virtual 
paganism. Whether a few verses of the 
Bible shall be read, or not, at the opening 
of the daily session, is, I think, a purely 
superficial question, and may well give 
way to deeper issues. For my own part, 
I feel that we are miserably short handed 
in our efforts to impress such religious 
truth on the young, as shall prepare them 
to enter upon life with a wholesome desire 
to conform to the laws of God. And seeing 
how little good ethical teaching there is, 
and how feebly religion gets any hold on 
our youth, I cannot wonder at the excesses 
which are displayed ; at the want of honor, 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 149 

respect for law, and at the practical atheism 
wMcli abound." 

The wrathy old gentleman of the New 
York Observer^ notwithstanding he talks 
about the ''coming fight," favors a refor- 
mation in the school system. He says, 
''the State teaches too much. What the 
State is required to do is to see to it, that 
all its children are taught to read and 
write, and to understand such things as 
are essential to good citizenship. There 
is no good reason why A should be taxed 
to enable the children of B to learn Latin, 
music, or drawing, or any one of the 
twenty studies now taught in the public 
schools. Our public school system needs 
to be overhauled. The religious question 
is pressing hard upon the popular mind 
and heart. Perhaps the solution of all 
these questions will be found in leaving 
the subject of education to the voluntary 
action of the people, as religion is now 
left. This plan is finding able advocates. 



13* 



150 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

The whole subject needs to be examined 
carefully and speedily." 

TTie New York Journal of Commerce 
advocates ^Hhe entire separation of the 
educational process from State authority. 
Youth needs the higher sanctions of re- 
ligion in every department of culture, and 
this cannot be secured in a State school 
where there is no State church." 

The New YorJc Tablet claims ^Hwo ways 
in which the State can honestly and justly 
deal with the school question. It must 
either divide the schools in fair propor- 
tion, and give to Catholics the control of 
their division, and to Protestants or non- 
Catholics, the control of theirs ; or adopt, 
in education as in religion, the voluntary 
system, and leave to each denomination to 
establish, support and manage schools for 
itself in its own way, without any more 
public support or interference than is law- 
ful in ecclesiastical matters. The last is 
the proper way ; indeed, the only consistent 
method of dealing with the question, be- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 151 

cause education is a function of the Churcli, 
not of the State. As we have, and can 
have, no public or State church, so we 
can consistently have no public or State 
schools." 

And the New TorTc Daily Times remarks : 
'^It may be doubted, whether it is the busi- 
ness of the government to teach school, any 
more than to teach religion." 

Catholics do not desire the system of com- 
mon schools abolished ; all we want is our 
proportion of the public moneys — the selec- 
tion of our teachers, and course of studies, 
such as would meet the approbation of our 
spiritual counselors. In all other respects 
let them remain under the boards of public 
instruction. In the present system, I fail to 
discover religious equality, but I can very 
easUy see a Protestant and Infidel ascend- 
ancy. The State has no right to educate our 
children — we hold it to be the ofiice of the 
Church. This is nothing new — the Church 
has been the educator from the beginning. 

If the State Legislature will not grant us 



152 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

the reform we need, let it not tax us to sup- 
port a system at variance with our religious 
convictions. Supposing the school law was 
modified, so as to grant Catholics separate 
schools, it would in no wise abolish the sys- 
tem as it now is for Protestants. To them 
it would be just the same. I think it would 
be better for both parties, Protestant as well 
as Catholic, to have a change, as there would 
arise a competition which would stimulate 
to excellence and proficiency, and place the 
standard of education higher than it ever 
was before. 

Protestant ministers are afraid that this 
question wUl come fairly and squarely before 
the people. They know and feel that Catho- 
lics have the best end of the argument — 
that all the logic and justice is upon their 
side, and when they find themselves driven 
to the wall, they threaten vengeance if we 
persevere in our just demands. Hear the 
New YotJc Observer^ the bluest sheet of Cal- 
vinism now in existence. ^'We say again, 
let Romanists and their friends beware; 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 153 

there is fire slumbering under the dead 
ashes of the present. It is not safe to drive 
Protestants to the wall, and batter down 
their institutions in their very faces. Pro- 
voke not — rather we would say, compel 
not — an attitude of hostility that all good 
men would deplore." 

Another choleric gentleman in New York 
who styles himself a Reverend Doctor, but 
does not believe in the divinity of Christ, 
threatens as follows : " We warn our Roman 
Catholic fellow-citizens of what is in store for 
them, if they continue to press their claim 
to break up our national system of pub- 
lic schools. They will sooner or later bring 
on a civil war, in which they and their 
churches will be swept, as by a whirlwind, 
from the land." And the great Dr. Clark, 
who turned his back on Congregationalism, 
to become a Dutch Reformed parson, has 
uttered the same in substance, though we 
cannot give his precise words, for he spoke 
as fiercely and with as much vehemence as 



154 THE QUESTI02!^ SOLVED. 

an angry Malay, with knife in hand, running 
a muck. 

What a similarity of sentiment between 
Unitarians and Calvinists ; they might form 
a union yet, a kind of marriage, between 
the adder and the scorpion. 

Dr. Clark asks, why do Catholics come 
among us with a foreign religion ? The same 
question was asked by the Romans in the 
days of the Apostles. They accused the 
early Christians of bringing a foreign religion 
among them, which threatened to subvert 
their institutions, and bring destruction to 
the Empire. Hence, laws were enacted 
against them ; they were put to the fire and 
the sword, and obliged to flee into the caves 
and fastnesses of the earth. But the God 
whom they served, in His own good time and 
pleasure, brought them forth, like gold tried 
in the furnace, full of faith and the Spirit 
of their Master. Their cause triumphed in 
the end, for theirs were the principles and 
practices of virtue, truth and godliness ; 



THE QUESTIOIS' SOLVED. 156 

wMe their persecutors fell to rise no more, 
to either power or dominion. 

The Doctor further says, '^we tolerate 
Romanists, and yet they are not satisfied." 
Ifow, who is this ^^we" and ''us," who 
seem to form a copartnership with the 
reverend lecturer? Does he mean the 
descendants of the Dutch settlers and the 
Plymouth Colony, or the sectaries in gen- 
eral, such as Presbyterians, Dutch Reform- 
ers, Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, 
Spiritualists, Free Lovers, Free Thinkers, 
Infidels and Atheists ? If this is the firm 
of which Dr. Clark is a leading member, we 
do not envy him his associates : they are all 
chips of the same block — they cannot be 
mistaken, because of their strong family 
resemblance. Let me tell that firm, that if 
it pursues an aggressive and unjust policy 
toward its neighbors, it will become bank- 
rupt, and will not be able to pay one per 
cent out of its spiritual treasury. 

This assumption of the Doctor' s is laugh- 
able, to say the least — it is nonsense and 



156 THE QUESTIO^JJ- SOLVED. 

worse — it is simply ridiculous. Let him 
study the Constitution and the laws of his 
country a little more before he comes for- 
ward again with such balderdash. 

We spurn his toleration, and laugh at his 
threats ; we shall act as freemen should, and 
demand equal rights with him. We will 
take part in all questions relating to the 
public weal, and stand up like a wall of 
brass against the encroachments and injus- 
tice of Protestant tyranny. 



CHAP. IX. 

The FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE PROTESTANT EDUCATIONAIi 
SYSTEM — EDUCATION IN ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION 
— THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE AGES — MR. KAY'S TRAVELS IN 
EUROPE — HIS ESTIMATE OP CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT EDU- 
CATION—STATISTICS—THE PROSPERITY OF CATHOLIC COLLEGES 
AND UNIVERSITIES DURING THE MIDDLE AGES — EDUCATION IN 
ENGLAND AFTER THE REFORMATION — CATHOLICS DO NOT HATE 
THE BIBLE — PROTESTANT BOASTING. 

THE French Revolution had more to do 
in bringing about public instruction, or a 
State system of schools, in the Protestant 
countries of Europe, than any movement 
Protestants had set on foot toward that end. 
The sovereigns were frightened into it, fear- 
ing the consequences which would be likely 
to follow, if man's nature was allowed to 
give way to the passions, uncontrolled by 
education and religion; for, as the New 
TotTc Tablet affirms, it was the result of 
godless schools, and the spirit which con- 
ceived and planned them, that brought 
Louis XVI to the guillotine. 

The Church has not existed for eighteen 
centuries without taking cognizance of pass- 
ing events. She has seen the rise and fall 
14 



158 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

of nations ; her advice, therefore, is prudent 
and healthful. She has witnessed the ruin 
and desolation that irreligion brought upon 
the people ; she therefore warns her children 
to beware of institutions where reason is 
deified and Christian ethics abolished. 

But Dr. Clark says that Catholicism is uni- 
versal ignorance — Protestantism, universal 
education. When he conceived that wicked 
fabrication he knew he was telling a lie, but 
a lie is nothing to him when he has a point to 
gain. He belongs to that class of whom it 
is said, that ^' the words of their mouth were 
smoother than butter, but war was in their 
hearts ; their words were softer than oil, 
yet were they drawn swords." 

Without referring to all the civilized coun- 
tries that have been instructed and con- 
verted to Christianity by Catholic enterprise 
we may, while passing, allude to a few, but 
particularly England, that nation which 
Dr. Clark seems to think the Protestant 
Paradise. 

Was there no education in England until 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 159 

the time of Henry VIII, Somerset and 
Elizabetli ? three precions murderers, as the 
BdinburgJi Review designates them, to wit : 
''Henry, the murderer of his wives ; Somer- 
set, murderer of his brother ; and Elizabeth, 
murderess of her guest." What a glorious 
triangle to build the Protestant church 
upon! 

When England was Catholic the nation 
was studded all over with religious and 
educational establishments — churches, con- 
vents and monasteries, had schools attached 
to each, besides the great colleges, diocesan 
seminaries and private tuitions. One-fourth 
of that island was, in fine, devoted to educa- 
tion, religion and charity, so that, if we take 
into consideration the age, population and 
wealth, it is a marvel that so much was ac- 
complished for the instruction of youth ; 
for a hundred received a collegiate educa- 
tion then, to one who now enjoys a like 
privilege. The printing press was not yet 
invented, so that their books were in manu- 
script and of great value. All honor to the 



160 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

industry and perseverance of those good old 
monks, who night and day labored inces- 
santly to supply the demand education 
made upon them. Did this look like ^^uni- 
versal ignorance" you man of easy times ? 
If you were a just, upright, honest man, you 
would praise, rather than abuse, those glori- 
ous, self-sacrificing servants of Grod, who by 
their faith and zeal kept the torch of education 
as well as religion, burning brightly at a time 
when feudal despotism was in league with 
ignorance, and devoted to war and conquest. 
Those feudal lords kept a certain class of 
the people in ignorance and degradation, 
whose only ambition was to obey their royal 
masters with a most abject servility. To 
improve the moral condition of such a vil- 
lainous class was no small nor easy task. 
They lived generally, outside the cities, in 
close proximity to the baronial castle, fol- 
lowed no worthy occupation, and united the 
character of soldier, robber and slave. 

The Church undertook the Herculean task 
of emancipating them from such a life of 



THE QUESTION SOLVED* 161 

depravity, and succeeded wonderfully Well, 
despite the opposition of their powerful 
chiefs. The clergy imparted to them a true 
knowledge of God, their own responsibility 
and their obligations toward their neighbor. 
Such were the characteristic eflfbrts of the 
Church in all ages. 

A few years ago the University of Cam- 
bridge, in England, commissioned a Mr. 
Kay to make a tour of Europe, in order to 
ascertain the condition of the poorer classes 
in each country. He spent eight years in 
that capacity ; and, as he is a staunch Prot- 
estant, and consequently no friend of Catho- 
lics, his evidence must have some weight 
with our so-called evangelical friends. 

Others may praise Mr. Kay for his manly 
independence in furnishing correct statistics 
of the countries through which he passed ; 
for our part we thank him not a whit— he 
could not help himself, he could not contra- 
dict public records. Had he said less than 
he did on the subject of education, he would 
have been easily confuted by the govern- 
14* 



162 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

mental registers, besides being put down as 
a traveling mountebank, in whom no con- 
fidence could be placed ; Ms own friends 
even would be obliged to discard Mm, so 
tliat lie would have no weight in matters 
of public interest. His report shows very 
plainly that there is more freedom of con- 
science in the monarchical countries of 
Europe, save Russia and Turkey, than in 
our own Republic. This, of course, is no 
fault of our glorious constitution, but the 
action of a tyranmcal majority. 

To show the relative condition of the edu- 
cational system in those countries visited 
by Mr. Kay, we borrow the following statis- 
tical extracts from his report, as we find 
them in Dr. Spalding's Review on this sub- 
ject, and which read as follows : 

In France the number of primary schools 
in 1843 was fifty-nine thousand three hun- 
dred and eighty-three, the number of nor- 
mal colleges for the instruction of teachers 
was ninety-six, and the number of teachers 
actually engaged in instruction, seventy- 



THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 163 

five thonsand five hnndred and thirty-five ; 
and as the population of France in 1843 
amounted to thirty-four million two hun- 
dred and thirty thousand one hundred and 
seventy-eight, it follows that there was in 
that year 

One primary school in France for every 558 inhabitants. 

One teacher for every 446 do 

One normal college for every 356,564 do 

In the same year there was in Prussia 

One primary school for every 653 do 

One teacher for every 662 do 

One normal college for every 377,300 do 

In the kingdom of Bavaria (Catholic), 

in the year 1846, there was 

One teacher for every 508 do 

One primary school for every 603 do 

One normal school for every 550,000 do 

In the kingdom of Saxony (Protestant, 

with a Catholic king), there was in 

the year 1843 

One primary school for every 900 do 

One teacher for every 588 do 

One normal college for every 214,975 do 

In the duchy of Baden (Catholic, with 

Protestant government), in the year 

1841 there was 
One primary school for every. ...... 700 do 

One normal college for every 500,000 do 



164 THE QUESTION SOLVED, 

It will be seen that, whMe Saxony has 
more normal schools, in proportion, than 
either Prussia, Bavaria, or even France, 
she is far behind France in the relative 
number of primary schools and teachers, 
and behind Prussia, Bavaria, and Baden, 
in the proportion of primary schools to the 
population. It is well to bear in mind, 
that in Saxony, the government is Catho- 
lic, with a large majority of Protestants in 
the population, while the government of 
Prussia is Protestant, with about two-fifths 
of the population. Catholics ; that of Baden, 
Protestant, with a very large Catholic 
majority ; while both the government and 
an overwhelming majority of the people 
of Bavaria are Catholic." 

In regard to Austria, we have the follow- 
ing statistics: ^'In 1842 the population of 
the Austrian empire, including Lombardy, 
but excluding Hungary, was twenty-five 
million three hundred and four thousand 
one hundred and fifty-two. For this popu- 
lation, twenty thousand two hundred and 



THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 165 

ninety-three primary day-schools had been 
founded ; that is, one primary day-school 
for every one thousand two hundred and 
forty-seven inhabitants, besides eleven 
thousand one hundred and forty repeti- 
tion, or evening-class schools. For these 
twenty thousand two hundred and ninety- 
three primary schools, forty-one thousand 
eight hundred and nine teachers had been 
appointed and salaried, each of these teach- 
ers having obtained a certificate of com- 
petence before being allowed to ofllciate as 
an instructor of youth. There was, there- 
fore, in 1842, about one teacher for every 
six hundred inhabitants in the whole empire 
of Austria, excluding Hungary, and rather 
more than two teachers, on the average, 
to every primary school." 

''France has fifty-nine thousand three 
hundred and eighty-three elementary 
schools ; England and Wales only four 
thousand. France expends annually two 
million pounds sterling ; England only 
one hundred and twenty-eight thousand 



166 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

pounds. In England and Wales nearly 
eight million persons cannot read and 
write, and of four hundred and sixty-seven 
thousand eight hundred and ninety-four 
marriages of all classes in . three years, 
three hundred and three thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-six of the persons 
married could not write their own names. 
More than one-half of the children in Eng- 
land are not attending any school, and the 
teachers in many of the village schools 
cannot read and write correctly, and know 
little of the Bible, although they profess 
to explain it to their pupils. To come up 
to the lowest standard of popular educa- 
tion in Continental Europe, England and 
Wales should have twenty-three thou- 
sand five hundred and thirty-one schools, 
twenty-six thousand five hundred teach- 
ers, and forty-one normal schools ; whereas 
of normal schools she has only twelve to 
ninety-two in France, and only a little 
more than one-sixth of her quota of primary 
schools ! By far the greatest part of the 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 167 

school buildings of England have only one 
room, in which all the classes are instructed 
together, in the midst of noise and foul 
air." 

''In Protestant Holland there are only 
two normal schools to two million six hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants." 

''Rome, with a population of one hundred 
and fifty-eight thousand six hundred and 
seventy-eight souls, has three hundred and 
seventy-two public primary schools, with 
four hundred and eighty-two teachers, and 
fourteen thousand children attending them ; 
Berlin, with double the population, has only 
two hundred and sixty-four schools. Rome 
has also her university, with an average 
attendance of six hundred and sixty stu- 
dents ; and the Papal States, with a popu- 
lation of two and a half millions, contain 
seven universities, while Prussia, with a 
population of fourteen million, has but 
seven." 

"In Spain, in 1850, there were ten univer- 
sities, forty-nine institutes under direction 



168 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

of the government, and sixteen thousand 
primary and other schools. In public 
schools alone (exclusive of universities and 
institutes), the number of pupils was in the 
proportion of one to seventeen of the whole 
population." 

By this we see that Catholic France is far 
ahead of Prussia or any other Protestant 
nation of Europe, while England is at the 
foot of the scale, not only of all Catholic 
but Protestant countries. 

In France, Austria, and other Catholic 
countries, provision is made for Protestant 
children, so that the religious scruples of 
their parents are amply satisfied. No law 
compels them to bow to the vast majority, 
in this respect. Mr. Kay says, ''The most 
interesting and satisfactory feature of the 
Austrian system is the great liberality with 
which the government, although so staunch 
an adherent and supporter of the Romanist 
priesthood, has treated the religious parties 
who diifer from itself in their religious 
dogmas. It has been entirely owing to this 



THE QUESTION SOLYED. 169 

liberality that neither the great number of 
sects in Austria, nor the great difference of 
their religious tenets, have hindered the 
work of the education of the poor through- 
out the empire." He goes on to show the 
efficiency of the schools, and how the diffi- 
culties arising from religion are met ; and 
ends up by saying, that ''Whenever the 
minority of any parish, whether Romanists, 
Protestants, or Jews, desire to establish a 
separate school for their children, and to 
support a teacher of their own denomina- 
tion, they are at liberty to separate from the 
majority, to provide alone for the education 
of their children ; but, by one means or 
another, each parish is obliged to provide 
for the education of all its children, and 
each householder to contribute his share of 
the funds necessary for this purpose ; and, 
whether separate or mixed schools are 
established, all are made subject to public 
inspection, so that the public may know the 
real character of each establishment ; that 
no demoralizing school, or inefficient or im- 
15 



170 THE QUESTIOJ^ SOLVED. 

moral teacher, may be allowed to exercise a 
baneful influence upon the youth of the 
empire ; and that the instruction in useful 
and civilizing knowledge may not be sacri- 
ficed in any degree to the dogmatical teach- 
ing of the different sects." 

If the object of Catholicism is covertly to 
gain control of education in order to use it 
against Protestants, why, in the name of 
common sense, do they not carry out the 
scheme wh^re they have the power to do so. 
I have alluded to Austria particularly, as 
she has always been the butt and reproach 
of our over-bilious parsons and swaddling 
ranters of every description. 

We might go on quoting from Mr. Kay' s 
report, which is quite a voluminous affair, 
but enough has been given to show that 
Catholics are not such an ignorant, godless, 
vicious and forsaken set, as our virtuous 
and immaculate Protestant friends would 
have us believe. 

If '^universal ignorance" is the distinct- 
ive feature of Catholicism, how came it to 



THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 171 

pass, that, in 1264, fifteen thousand scholars 
entered Oxford alone, and from 1300 to 
1340, the number of students annually ex- 
ceeded thirty thousand. One thousand 
poor scholars were educated yearly in that 
noble institution, free of expense. Can the 
same be said of it in our day ? 

In 1263, the University of Bologna re- 
ceived ten thousand law students, and 
Robertson, in his History of Charles Y, 
says, that ten thousand graduates voted 
on certain questions in the University of 
Paris. 

Has Dr. Clark never heard of such bril- 
liant minds as Eusebius, St. Jerome, St. 
Hilary, St. Gregory the Great, St. Augus- 
tine, Origen, Ambrose, Athanasius, Cassio- 
dorus, the emperor Constantine, Charle- 
magne, Leo X, Polycarp, Justinian, St. 
Clement, and thousands upon thousands 
of others, equally great and gifted? The 
names of distinguished scholars sent forth 
by the Catholic Church would fill volumes. 
I defy Dr. Clark to prove that one of them 



172 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

discouraged the diffusion of useful knowl- 
edge, at any time or place; on the con- 
trary, they were always the patrons of 
literature, and the guardians of education. 

If '' universal ignorance" is the pre- 
dominant passion of Catholics, what in 
the world have they accumulated so many 
libraries for? What a foolish people, to 
be sure, to wear themselves out in writing 
and collecting such a vast and varied num- 
ber of books! It was not at all '^ smart" 
in them to buUd up such libraries as those 
of Monte Cassino, Csesarea, Jerusalem, 
Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, Ham- 
burg, Bamberg, Cologne, Weremouth, 
York, Lincoln, Armagh, Spanheim, Ros- 
sano. Piedmont, Peterborough, Paris, Pa- 
dua, Naples, Salamanca, and Yalladolid. 

Poor old Ireland, may her name be for- 
ever sacred for her efforts in the cause of 
education ! For three hundred years, from 
the fifth to the eighth century, she led the 
van of intellectual progress throughout 
Europe. If Dr. Clark will look into the 



THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 173 

Annals of the Four Masters, he will see 
what Catholic Ireland accomplished for 
literature and civilization, when his Eng- 
lish progenitors were yet a common horde 
of barbarians. She not only founded the 
schools of Bobbio in Italy, Ratisbon, Co- 
logne, and Erfurth, but her professors were 
to be found in every institution of note 
throughout the Continent. She founded, 
too, the famous school of Lindisfarne, and 
many others throughout England. 

Does this look like '^universal ignor- 
ance," Doctor? 

How was it subsequent to the boasted 
Reformation ? The enligMened Protestants 
tore down and leveled to the ground all 
the monastic schools ; converted the colleges 
to private and public uses, and allowed 
Oxford and Cambridge to fall into decay. 
Many of the old libraries were entirely 
destroyed, and the children of the few, 
only, were permitted the advantages of 
education, while the poor were neglected 
and despised. It is true, that very many 
15* 



174 THE QUESTIO:^" SOLVED. 

discoveries and improvements are of mod- 
ern date, but we do not thank the Prot- 
estant religion for them; some of them 
were the result of chance, while others were 
brought into notice by men having no 
especial regard for revealed religion. But 
this we will say, that those educated pre- 
vious to the Reformation knew perfectly 
well the rights and duties of mankind, and 
as to a thorough religious education, they 
have not yet been excelled. 

Dr. Clark asserts that ^'Catholics hate the 
Bible," but does he not know, that it was 
the Catholic saints, by the authority of the 
Church, that collected and compiled the 
canon of the Scripture, which has been 
handed down to us through one generation 
after another ? If Catholics feared the spread 
of knowledge and hated the Bible so much, 
it is strange that St. Boniface should entreat 
of a certain abbess, that she would copy the 
Epistles of St. Peter, in letters of gold. 

If Protestants were honest in their love 
for the Bible, instead of villifying Catholics 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 175 

about hating it, they would ojffer a vote of 
thanks every Sunday morning in their 
assemblies, to the Catholic Church for her 
jealous care- and watchfulness, in protect- 
ing the sacred volume. If Catholics were 
averse to the Bible, they might have de- 
stroyed it ages before the Lutheran mon- 
strosity was spawned; but, instead of so 
doing, Bibles were printed in Latin, Ger- 
man, Italian, French, English, Spanish and 
Dutch, long before Luther broke his sacred 
vows. There were forty editions printed in 
Italy alone, and recommended by the 
Pope — three distinct translations were pub- 
lished at Wittemberg, the latest in 1490, only 
seven years after the birth of Luther — and 
seventy editions in other languages, before 
Luther issued his version. 

To hear Protestants ''blow," as a Yankee 
would say, is sometimes amusing. They 
remind you of old salts, who are notorious 
for their fish stories — they become so accus- 
tomed to retailing them over and over that 
they finally believe them themselves. Prot- 



176 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

estants, in like manner, keep on telling ns 
what they have done for the world — they 
started the fox and came in at the killing. 
They have invented everything, from a jack- 
knife to a flying ship — they are the head 
and pluck of every great achievement in 
literature, art and science — in fact, they 
ride upon the wind, and sail upon the 
storm ; nothing is good but what they do or 
say, and nothing right but what they coun- 
tenance. If they had lived in the days of 
Pontius Pilate they would have eclipsed the 
Pharisees, by their vain boasting and self- 
glory. Their lights are on the mountain 
tops, while the dim taper of Catholics is 
hid under a bushel, producing nothing but 
smoke. Our American Protestants are as 
vindictive as their English co-religionists, if 
not more so. They are very magnanimous 
in their assertions and accusations against 
the spirit of the Church, but she can stand 
it aU, for as it is in the department of pub- 
lic instruction, so is it in all other respects, 
as far as Catholic principles are concerned. 



THE QUESTIOiq' SOLVED. 177 

Look them up honestly, and you will find 
them, as did Mr. Kay the educational sys- 
tem. He started from England, which he 
had fancied the most progressive, moral and 
civilized nation on earth, and expected 
nothing in his perambulations on the Conti- 
nent but ignorance, superstition and crime ; 
but, to the great surprise of the Cambridge 
commission that sent him forth, he returned, 
after long absence, to tell them that his 
native country was, in the aggregate, the 
most depraved and illiterate nation he had 
seen. 



CHAP. X. 

False accusations agaixst the church — sincerity and in- 
tellect SEEK ROME, HYPOCRISY AND IGNORANCE SEEK GENEVA 
— COMPARISON BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS ON 
THEIR DEATH-BEDS — BRILLIANT EULOGIES PASSED ON THE 
CHURCH BY DISTINGUISHED PROTESTANTS — THE CHANGING OP 
PROTESTANTS PROM ONE COMMUNION TO ANOTHER — PROTEST- 
ANT PRIDE. 

IF the Cliurcli of Rome is such a moun- 
tain of ignorance as onr intelligent Doc- 
tor makes her out to be, how comes it that 
so many learned men and women forsake 
Protestantism to enter the ranks of Roman 
Catholics ? We conld enumerate thousands 
of highly distinguished converts from Prot- 
estantism, yearly. No base or selfish motive 
prompts them to take such a step, because, 
in a worldly point of view, they have every 
thing to lose and nothing to gain. ISTot so 
the miserable few who forsake Catholicism 
for some uncertain creed. Take, for exam- 
ple, such apostates as Achilli, who was 
expelled for his libertinism ; Hogan and 
Gavazi, suspended priests, whose crimes 
had been proven against them ; degraded 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 179 

in body and soul, and covered with the 
leprosy pf their own abominations, they go 
away prodigals from their father' s house, to 
be received with open arms by Protestants. 
Where will you find such men as ISTew 
man. Manning, Faber, Wilberforce, Lord 
Spencer, the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, Prince 
Henry Edward of Schoenberg, Count Ingen- 
heim, brother to the King of Prussia, Fred- 
eric, Duke of Meclenburg, Madame Swetch- 
ine of Russia, a most brilliant writer and 
thinker, the brother of the King of Wurtem- 
burg, or the famous Count Stolberg and his 
whole family. Werner, who occupied many 
of the highest positions in the city of Berlin, 
on becoming convinced of the truth of the 
Catholic faith, cast away all his honors and 
joined the order of the poor Redemptorists. 
A great many others, not less distinguished 
in literature and science, belonging to Prussia 
(whose common school system, by the way, 
is far in advance of our own country), re- 
nounced Protestantism and became Catho- 



180 THE QUESTIOisT SOLVED. 

lies, such as Sclilegel, the Baron Eckstein, 
the famous Adam MuUer, etc., etc, 

Charles Louis de Haller, one of the most 
eminent Protestants of Switzerland, became 
a Catholic, for which he lost his social posi- 
tion, his titles and emoluments, and was 
driven into exile by his former friends, who, 
like Dr. Clark & Co., boast of. their tolera- 
tion and freedom of thought and action. 
But the glorious example of Haller was 
soon followed by others, among whom we 
may mention Esslinger, of Zurich, Pierre de 
Joux, of Geneva, as also Frederic Hurter, 
the learned President of the Consistory of 
Schaffhouse, Overbeck, the great painter, 
Laval, pastor of Conde-sur-Noiveau, Paul 
Latour, President of the Consistory of Maz- 
d'Asil, the famous Bermaz, of Lyons, and 
Listz, the great pianist and composer. 

In the United States we have Dr. Ives, 
once Protestant Bishop of North Carolina, 
who made a journey to Rome, and thowing 
himself at the feet of the Pope, handed him 
the ring and seal which he wore as the in- 



THE QUESTIOiT SOLVED. 181 

signia of Ms office, saying, ^^Holy Father, 
here are the marks of my rebellion." Who 
has not heard of the erndite, uncompromis- 
ing Dr. Brownson, one of the greatest logi- 
cians that America has ever seen, and the 
terror of Protestant controversialists ; for no 
man in the United States could be found so 
fool-hardy as to measure swords with him 
in the field of metaphysics or theology. 

We can, also, point to Father Hecker, one 
of the most learned men in the country, and 
Superior of the Order of Paulists, all of 
whom were distinguished ministers of vari- 
ous sects, and belonging to some of the first 
families of the country ; Dr. Rogers, of 
Louisville ; Dr. Anderson, the distinguished 
essayist and writer ; Bishop Bayley ; Rev. 
Mr. Doane; Rev. Mr. Preston, of St. Ann's, 
New York; Father Wadhams, Y. Gr., and 
Father Walworth, of our own city. 

We have prominent converts from all the 
liberal professions, and not a day passes 
without fresh recruits from Protestant 
ranks. 



16 



182 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

Now, who do we lose ? Unfrocked monks, 
suspended priests, and a few obstinate 
noodles, who, once in a great while, go to 
the next Protestant meeting house through 
spite; but who, on their death bed, con- 
science-smitten, send for a priest and re- 
nounce their apostacy. Protestants, again, 
take a mean advantage of some poor people 
in distress, and bribe them to forsake their 
religion, which they may do for a time, but, 
as a rule, they return again. 

Who ever heard of a Catholic who, on 
his death bed, desired to become a Protest- 
ant? I could swear on the Holy Gospels 
there never was one. On the contrary, 
thousands of Protestants, when they come 
to die, renounce the errors of the Reforma- 
tion, beg to be admitted to the True Church, 
and depart this life in peace, praising God 
for their conversion. 

Who ever heard of an intelligent Catholic 
becoming a Protestant, unless for some self- 
ish object? I challenge Dr. Clark to point 
out one ! How many converts has he made 



THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 183 

since his ordination, with, all his ranting? 
Answer, ye Congregationalists of Brooklyn, 
and ye Dutch Reformed of Albany ! There 
might be one or two stray sheep, without 
brains or influence, who have wandered 
from the fold for the sake of a husband or 
a wife, or to improve their worldly condi- 
tion, and sold their birthright for a mess of 
pottage ; but, if they were questioned as to 
why they changed their religion, could not 
give the first sensible or scriptural answer. 
On the contrary, I could show him hun- 
dreds in this city alone, who have re- 
nounced Protestantism, and who could 
hedge the learned Doctor round about with 
arguments and proofs as solid as the rocks 
of Gribraltar. 

If you Protestants possess all the learn- 
ing, all the sincerity, and all the holiness, 
of which you boast, and we only the peel- 
ings, scraps and refuse of what is good, 
intelligent and true, how come these things 
to pass ? 

Mgr. Segur relates the story of a Protest- 



184 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

ant minister and French priest, who were 
traveling together in a stage coach, when 
the following conversation took place. The 
minister introduced the subject of conver- 
sions, and found great fault with the priest, 
for the large number of recruits the Church 
obtained out of the ranks of Protestantism ; 
the priest answered with a smile, " but you 
have a good many on your side." ''Ah," 
replied the minister ; ''yes, but you give us 
your garbage, while you take our cream." 
A writer quoted by Mr. Foisset, in his 
work on Catholicity and Protestantism, 
said, "Had I the misfortune of not being a 
Catholic, two things would disturb me, I 
must confess. First, the number and supe- 
rior mind of those who have believed in the 
Roman Church, after examination, ever 
since the times of Luther and Calvin ; and 
secondly, the number and superior mind of 
those who, after examination, have aban- 
doned Luther and Calvin, and gone over to 
Rome. I would, hence, come to the conclu- 



THE QUESTIOJST SOLVED. 185 

sion that there is room for examination, and 
I would examine." 

The high and flattering encomiums passed 
on the usefulness, strength and perpetuity 
of our holy Church, by men of science and 
philosophy outside her communion, would 
of themselves fill volumes. Let those who 
are contiually predicting the overthrow of 
the Church of Rome, hearken to the declara- 
tion of Lord Macaulay concerning her: 
" The proudest royal houses are but of yes- 
terday, compared with the line of the 
Supreme Pontiffs. The Republic of Venice 
came next in antiquity. But the Republic 
of Venice was modern, when compared with 
the Papacy ; and the Republic of Venice 
is gone, and the Papacy remains. The 
Papacy remains, not in decay — not a mere 
antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. 
The Catholic Church is still sending forth, 
to the farthest ends of the world, mission- 
aries as zealous as those who landed in Kent 
with Augustine ; and still confronting kings 
with the same spirit with which she con- 
16* 



186 THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 

fronted Attila. The number of her children 
is greater than in any former age. . . . Nor 
do we see any sign which indicates that the 
term of her long dominion is approaching. 
She saw the commencement of all govern- 
ments, and of all the ecclesiastical establish- 
ments that now exist in the world ; and we 
feel no assurance that she is not destined to 
see the end of them all. She was great and 
respected before the Saxon set foot on Britain; 
before the French had crossed the Rhine ; 
when Grecian eloquence still flourished at 
Antioch ; when idols were still worshipped 
in the temple of Mecca. And she may still 
exist, in undiminished vigor, when some 
traveler from New Zealand shall, in the 
midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on 
a broken arch of London bridge, to sketch 
the ruins of St. Paul. . . . When we reflect 
on the tremendous assaults which she has 
survived, we find it difficult to conceive in 
what way she is to perish." 

The famous scholar Marheinehe, admits 
the Church to be miraculously organized. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 187 

He says, " We, Protestants as we are, when 
we take in at one view this wondrous edi- 
fice, from its base to its summit, must 
acknowledge that we have never beheld a 
system which, the foundation once laid, is 
raised upon such certain and secure prin- 
ciples ; whose structure displays, in its 
minutest details, so much art, penetration 
and consistency ; and whose plan is so 
proof against the severest criticisms of the 
most profound science." 

Another German philosopher, Grfrdner, 
says, " The Catholic Faith, if we concede its 
first axiom, which neither the Lutherans, 
nor the Reformed, nor even the followers of 
Socinus denied, is as consistent and as con- 
secutive as the books of Euclid. The entire 
of the Romish religion is founded upon 
the fact of a supernatural revelation, de- 
signed for the whole human race ; which, as 
it embraces all generations, future as well 
as present, can never be interrupted." 

Prof. Draper, of the University of New 
York, who has no superior in the ranks of 



188 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

men of science and philosophy in America, 
speaks of the influence of the Christian 
Church on European civilization, as fol- 
lows: ''In the history of the European, 
from the time of the Emperor Constantine 
to the eighteenth century, the ecclesiastical 
element so greatly preponderates as to 
constitute its almost essential feature ; and, 
after all, it is impossible to do justice to 
the effects which ensued on the establish- 
ment of Christianity, and its adoption by 
the white man as his religion. The civil 
law exerted an exterior power in human 
relations; this produced an interior and 
moral change. The idea of an ultimate 
accountability for personal deeds, of which 
the old Europeans had an indistinct per- 
ception, became intense and precise; the 
sentiment of universal charity was exem- 
plified, not only in individual acts, the 
remembrance of which soon passed away, 
but in the more permanent institution of 
establishments for the relief of affliction, 
the spread of knowledge, the propagation 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 189 

of truth. Of the great ecclesiastics, many- 
had risen from the humblest ranks of 
society, and these great men, true to their 
democratic instincts, were often found to 
be the inflexible supporters of right against 
might. Eventually coming to be the de- 
positaries of the knowledge that then ex- 
isted, they opposed intellect to brute force, 
in many instances successfally, and, by 
the example of the organization of the 
Church, which was essentially republican, 
they showed how representative systems 
may be introduced into the State. IsTor 
was it over communities and nations that 
the Church displayed her chief power. 
Never in the world before was there such 
a system. From her central seat at Rome, 
her all-seeing eye, like that of Providence 
itself, could equally take in a hemisphere 
at a glance, or examine the private life of 
any individual. Her boundless influence 
enveloped kings in their palaces, or re- 
lieved the beggar at the monastery gate. 
In all Europe there was not a man too 



190 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 

obscnre, too insignificant, or too desolate 
for her. Surrounded by her solemnities, 
every one received Ms name at her altar; 
her bells chimed at his marriage, her knell 
tolled at his funeral. She extorted from 
him the secrets of his life at her confes- 
sionals, and punished his faults by her 
penances. In his hour of sickness and 
trouble her servants sought him out, teach- 
ing him by her exquisite litanies and 
prayers to place his reliance on God, or 
strengthening him for the trials of life, by 
the example of the holy and just. Her 
prayers had an efiicacy to give repose to 
the soul of his dead. When even to his 
friends his lifeless body had become an 
offense, in the name of God, she received 
it into her consecrated ground, and under 
her shadow he rested till the great reckon- 
ing day. From little better than a slave, 
she raised his wife to be his equal, and, for- 
bidding him to have more than one, met 
her recompense for those noble deeds in a 
firm friend at every fireside. Discounte- 



THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 191 

nancing all impure lore, site put round 
that fireside the children of one mother, 
and made that mother little less than 
sacred in their eyes. In ages of lawless- 
ness and rapine, among people but a step 
above savages, she vindicated the inviola- 
bility of her precincts against the hand of 
power, and made her temple a refuge and 
sanctuary for the despairing and oppressed. 
Truly she was the shadow of a great rock 
in many a weary land ! " 

Great and expansive intellects have always 
been more disposed to deal fairly with the 
policy of the Church than those of smaller 
capacity. Take a poor, miserable sectarian 
devotee, with a mind as muddy as the 
Mississippi after a freshet, a cold, sluggish 
heart, and a soul no bigger than a mus- 
quito's wing, and he is by far a greater 
bigot than your man of large brain and 
noble instincts. 

In the days of my early boyhood, family 
matters brought me in contact with Prot- 
estants, and being of an inquiring turn of 



193 THE QUESTI02>r SOLVED. 

mind, I came very near being led astray 
by the cunning sophistries of many of my 
friends. I had the presumption of going 
so far as to doubt many things concerning 
Catholic faith and Catholic principles, and 
if I am a judge of my own feelings, there 
never was a person of my age (for I was 
yet in my pupilage), that made a more 
honest investigation into the Protestant 
claim than I did. I sincerely regret having 
wasted so much valuable time in hunting 
up what, in my inmost soul, I designate as 
the biggest religious swindle that has been 
Jcnown in the history of man; for, as far as 
I could judge, I discovered more downright 
hypocrisy and covering up of sin, among 
Protestants, than among those who pro- 
fessed no religion at all. I could point my 
finger to professors of religion, of high 
standing, with a sleek, pious exterior, who 
make long prayers, hate Catholics, and 
talk much about virtue and holiness, who 
are regular Shylocks, unscrupulous, vin- 
dictive, and uncharitable. 



THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 193 

A good, pious, and practical Catholic, 
who never, perhaps, committed a mortal 
sin in his life, who views himself a sinner 
in the sight of God, and would be scandal- 
ized if his virtues were paraded all over 
town, is decried by your evangelical per- 
fectionists who are continually recounting 
their own good deeds ; but call one of them 
a poor, miserable sinner, and he will take 
it as a very great insult. 

In this connection I often think of a 
story told me by a person well acquainted 
with the facts. It happened that a maiden 
lady, on the shady side of forty, a seam- 
stress by occupation, and a member of the 
Methodist Church, resided in a quiet west- 
ern village. At the usual evening gather- 
ings, sewing and quilting bees, '^Aunt 
Betsy" appeared as a useful and clear- 
seeing person, who could turn her hand to 
any thing. Her knowledge of family affairs 
was pretty extensive, and rumor said that 
^'she knew too much." To church, sun- 
day school, and prayer meetings, she was 
17 



194 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 

very attentive, but one little besetting sin 
always accompanied her, and often made 
trouble among the neighbors. Aunt Betsy 
would carry little privacies back and forth, 
and generally with . a small addition, to 
make them more interesting. Some of her 
Methodist sisters became disgusted, and 
requested the dominie to give her a ^'talk- 
ing to." On a certain evening, during con- 
ference meeting, our heroine was sitting as 
if in great agony of spirit, and as the minis- 
ter came around to her, he asked, '^Well, 
Aunt Betsy, what has the Lord been doing 
for you, since I saw you last?" '^Wall, 

Brother B , I am a poor cretur (a sob) ; 

I feel my Saviour afar off, and there is no 
good in me" (another snuffle). '^Well, 
sister, I don't wonder at it, for every one 
says you are a miserable creature." This 
was too much for the humility of Aunt 
Betsy ; she jumped up with an air of per- 
fect scorn and contempt, saying, ^'Wall, I 
am just as good as they are, or you either, 
consarn your impudence!" She left the 



THE QUESTIOi^r SOLVED. 195 

meeting to be seen at the Baptist Churcli 
the following Sunday. 

The amount of vanity treasured up in 
Protestant congregations surpasses the 
court of the Grand Turk. Take, for exam- 
ple, the vagary of shifting or running from 
one Church to another on the slightest pre- 
tense, or supposed insult. They think no 
more of changing their religion than they do 
of changing their clothes. The rich cannot 
brook the idea of mixing up with a poor 
congregation ; and, if a person belonging to 
the latter should, by hook or by crook, get 
rich, they are itching to go to the Church 
frequented by the ''upper ten." The 
preacher does not suit one ; the matter of 
the discourse offends another ; the minister 
is too proud or too humble, too grave or 
too gay. Somebody, of influence in the 
congregation, had seen or heard of some 
one else, a hundred miles off, who is just 
the thing ; a meeting is called, the trustees 
have a fight, the minister is either insulted 
or openly discharged, and another takes 



196 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

his place, to meetj perhaps, with no better 
fate. 

The fact is, where there is no sure faith, 
there is no stability of purpose in religion. 
The father and mother profQSS one set of 
principles, the brother and sister jnst the 
reverse ; while in many cases, no two mem- 
bers of the family believe alike. Even the 
children of Protestant ministers will des- 
pise the tenets of their parents, and adopt 
some other system of ethics. Can this be 
the work of God? If so, the good Lord 
would contradict Himself, and to say that, 
would be blasphemy. 



CHAP. XL 

Dr. ci-abk's trip to Europe — his visit to the city of the pon"- 
tiffs — lying statistics of morality by protestant minis- 
ters— an old d(^ge — comparison between the fathers 
of the church and the leaders of the reformation — 
vagaries of protestants — the immorality of the re- 
formers—the vile practices of the antinomians — the 
profligate lives of protestant monarchs and rulers. 

DR. CLARK goes to Europe, whether for 
the good of his health, or a respite 
from the terribly exhausting labor of pre- 
paring two sermons a week, it is none of 
our business ; but the Doctor must be 
learned and interesting to feed his fashion- 
able flock ; he must present them with 
dainty scraps of spiritual food, served up 
with anti-Popery sauce, and seasoned with 
the pepper bf infidelity and the salt of mod- 
ern progress and Protestant civilization. But 
a journey to the Old World is not a journey 
at all without a visit to the Eternal City; 
and Dr. Clark, being a lover of ancient 
Roman civilization, must make a pilgrim- 
age thither. N'ow, a D. D. of the Dutch 
Reformed stamp is a very small potato in 
17* 



198 THE QUESTIOiq- SOLVED. 

Eome, and just as mnch out of place, as 
'^Mickey de Boots" would be in the 
society of Shakspeare and his friends. 
Having no feeling in common with the 
spiritual and learned circles of that classi- 
cal city, he lounges round the haunts of 
vice, and visits the most abanidoned places , 
of foreign resort, kept by Protestants and 
Infidels ; or wanders about the site of the 
ancient city, weeping over the ruined tem- 
ples of pagan civilization, wishing, no doubt, 
that he had been there in the golden age. 

What else he did, we know not ; but he 
returns to his Dutch Reformed pulpit to 
treat his dear brethren to a feast gathered 
by him in the purlieus of Catholic Eome ; 
knowing full well, that such* a banquet 
would tickle the palates of the godly peo- 
ple of Albany. 

It is with Dr. Clark as it has been with 
most Protestant preachers, when all other 
arguments against Rome fail, they try to get 
up lying statistics concerning the morality of 
Catholic and Protestant countries. On this 



THE QUESTI02^ SOLVED. 199 

snbject, Protestant ministers should forever 
hold their peace. They and the virtue of 
morality parted company a long time since ; 
and, like two diverging lines, the farther 
they go the wider will be the breach. True 
morality emanated from the Catholic Church 
of Christ, the fountain of purity and holi- 
ness. She has been, from the beginning, the 
uncompromising enemy of every evil inten- 
tion, every unclean thought and action. 
Can there be any thing more in unison with 
the Divine mind than her theology, more 
acceptable than her offices, or more beauti- 
ful than her liturgy ? She has opposed the 
avarice and cunning of the Jew, the sword 
and imposition of the Mahomedan, the 
impiety and corruption of the Infidel, the 
fury of the Pagan, and the malignity, deceit, 
wicked and lying assaults of the Protestant 
and the Apostate. Her mission is a service 
of love ; she listens attentively to the cries 
of woe, rebukes the wayward, calls back 
the erring, and pours the oil of consolation 
into the wounded, throbbing heart of hu- 



200 THE QUESTIOI^ SOLVED. 

manity. From the peasant's hut to the 
king' s palace, she exercises a moral influ- 
ence ; she curbs the passions of the tyrant, 
and softens the heart of the outlaw. She 
provides a home for the cast-away and the 
forlorn, the sick and the unfortunate ; she 
gives countenance and support to every 
useful occupation and to every benevolent 
and humane enterprise ; to the weak she is 
merciful and compassionate, and to the 
strong she imparts lessons of wisdom, so 
that they may exert their strength in favor 
of virtue and good works. She regulates 
the conduct of her children from the cradle 
to the grave, decrying vice, and inculcating 
practices of virtue, with a watchfulness that 
never ceases — with an energy that never 
tires. How, therefore, can she be held re- 
sponsible for the irregularities that may at 
times break forth among a few members of 
her communion ? 

Compare the lives of the Fathers and 
Doctors of the Church, with the apostates 
and leaders of the Reformation, and the 



THE QUESTI02IT SOLVED. 201 

contrast is so great, that no rainbow of the 
heavens could span the gulf that lies be- 
tween. The former were saints, in the true 
acceptation of the word ; full of faith, devo- 
tion and humility, ever ready to obey the 
calls of duty, to deny themselves, take up 
their cross and follow Christ; and nobly 
did they walk in the footsteps of their 
Master. They endured hunger and thirst, 
toil and fatigue, insult, and every conceiva- 
ble cruelty ; yet they faltered not in their 
path of duty, nor feared a lion in the way. 
On they went, with their hands to the 
plough, nor did they look back, until they 
accomplished their task — they kept the 
faith, and received the crown. How was it 
with the latter ? Actuated by a spirit of 
pride, a love of display, and a thirst for 
self-indulgence, they bartered away every 
noble action, and every pure sentiment, for 
base and unworthy motives ; perverted the 
word of God to justify their wayward pas- 
sions, and enlisted their forces under Mars, 
the god of war and bloodshed. 



202 THE QtJESTIO]^ SOLYED. 

Where in the ranks of Protestantism can 
you find such illustrious personages as SS. 
Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Mar- 
tin, Mcholas, Anthony, Benedict, Bernard, 
Francis, Ignatius, Basil the Great, Alphon- 
sus Liguori, Vincent de Paul, Aloysius ; 
SS. Jane Frances, Rose of Lima, Bridget, 
Elizabeth of Hungary, Genevieve, Agnes, 
Agatha, Euphrasia, Balbina, Monica, Teresa, 
Cecilia, Catherine of Sienna, and thousands 
upon thousands of holy men and women 
who conquered the impulses of human 
nature, to cultivate the heavenly aspira- 
tions of the soul. They forsook the fleeting 
pleasures of this life, for the everlasting 
happiness of the life to come. Search the 
universe and you cannot find, outside the 
pale of the Church, the equal of St. Francis 
Xavier, or any of the saints in the Roman 
Calendar. Even the laws of nature yielded 
obedience to their pious demands, and bore 
testimony to their great sanctity. 

We will now impeach those from whom 
Dr. Clark draws his inspirations, and, lest 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 203 

onr Dutch Reformers should think that we 
draw upon our imagination, we will give 
Protestant authority as our witnesses. To 
begin with their apostle and high priest 
Luther, we accuse him of the gross crime of 
concubinage, with a woman he had seduced 
from the paths of virtue, and from that time 
he gave full swing to all his animal passions. 
Morgenstern, a Protestant, produces a letter 
of Luther' s, which decency forbids us to lay 
before our readers ; one sentence will suffice, 
''good drinking, and good eating; behold 
the surest means of being happy ! " 

Audin, a Protestant, tells us that Luther 
was on intimate terms of friendship with his 
Satanic majesty, the devil, in proof of which 
Luther himself says : ''I have been always 
better treated by the devil than by men ; and 
I would rather be strangled by the devil 
than by the emperor. I would at least die 
by the hand of a great man. ' ' In his ' ' Table 
Talk," he speaks eloquently of the ''man in 
black." "There are devils in the forests, 
in the waters, in the marshes, — wherever, 



204 THE QUESTION SOLYED. 

in fine, there are creatures to torment. Some 
hang on the sides of black clouds, others 
excite storms, raise up tempests, hurl 
thunderbolts, dart lightnings, and, in fine, 
infect the air, the sea and the fields. The 
philosophers attribute these things to the 
stars." He also asserts that the devil is 
the author of all physical evils, of sickness, 
death, etc., and undertakes to prove his 
theory by the second chapter of Hebrews. 
He declares that his own sickness at Coburg 
was not a natural malady, but the finger 
of the devil pressing heavily on him. ''I 
have found many varieties of caterpillar in 
my garden, I thought it was the devil that 
sent them to me. They have, as it were, 
horns on the nose ; they have rings of gold 
and silver; outside they appear brilliant, 
inside they are full of poison. The devil is 
like a fly. As soon as a fine book appears, 
the fly goes over its white pages, leaving 
well known traces of its presence, as much 
as to say, ' I have been there.' So the devil, 
when he finds an innocent and pure heart. 



THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 205 

sullies it." (See Frankfort edition of Lu- 
ther's Table Talk.) 

But after a while, these mutual friends had 
a falling out. '^ The devil gives me no rest, 
he annoys me night and day ; at table and 
in bed ; in the church and in my study ; at 
home and even in the cellar ! " While in his 
study at Wittenberg, translating the Psalms, 
the devil would steal up to him and suggest 
wicked fancies to his imagination. If Luther 
pretended not to understand him, old cloven 
foot would fly into a passion, fling his papers 
about, close or tear up his book, and put the 
candle out. On one occasion the devil, in 
the shape of a fly, annoyed him so much 
that he could stand it no longer, and with 
terrible voice cried out, ^^ Begone, Satan!" 
and hurled the inkstand at the winged imp. 
The ink stains are visible on the castle wall 
to this day. Hear him as he mounted the 
pulpit of ^^All Saints," in Wittenberg, 
equipped in a coat of mail, and a long sword 
hanging by his side: ^^I know Satan; I 
know that he does not sleep, that his eye 

18 



306 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

watches for trouble and desolation. I have 
learned to wrestle with him, and do not fear 
him ; I have inflicted more than one wound 
from which he will long suffer. What mean, 
then, these novelties which have been intro- 
duced in my absence? Was I at such a 
distance that I could not be consulted ? Am 
I no longer the source of pure doctrine? 
What must the devil think when he sees 
you enact all your fancies ? The sly rogue 
keeps himself quiet in hell, since he knows 
what tragedies you doctors are about to ex- 
cite!" meaning Karlstadt and his brother 
reformers, who abolished the Mass, and gut- 
ted the old church of All Saints of all that 
was rich and costly in its decorations, the 
works of piety and genius. 

This proceeding on the part of Luther 
called forth the opposition of the assailed, 
and the authorities of the city called the 
warlike doctor to a conference, to which he 
responded. He there met a famous cobbler, 
named Crispin, who was looked upon as a 
great theologian among the Protestants of 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 207 

Orlamnndi, and who took sides against him. 
The discussion being ended, the question 
was decided in favor of the cobbler ; and the 
sequel was, that the warrior doctor was 
pelted with stones out of the city, the mob 
crying after him, ^' May the devil and his 
imps have you ! May you break your neck 
and limbs before you leave the city ! " 

It is needless to recite any more from the 
lips of this bold, bad man; if the reader 
should be curious enough to look up the 
subject, we will refer him to Audin's Life 
af Luther, American edition. There he 
will find Luther' s theory of Demonology ; 
his famous conference with the devil; his 
Satanic majesty's overwhelming argument 
which completely demolished Luther ; the 
squabble of Martin and the devil, over the 
bag of nuts, etc., etc. Over his conversation 
on the '^ charms of beautiful women," we 
prefer to draw our pen ; such lasciviousness 
is not to be spoken or written, in a Christian 
community ; let it forever sleep amid the 
ruins of the Black Eagle Tavern at Witten- 



208 THE QUESTIO][^J- SOLVED. 

berg, that once spiritual retreat of Lnther 
and Ms drunken companions and fellow 
reformers, Amsdorf, Staupitz, and Justus 
Jonas. ''I tremble," exclaimed Melanc- 
thon, ^^when I think of the passions of 
Luther!" 

Zwinglius compares Luther to a nasty 
hog, grunting around, tearing up the sweet 
flowers of a fine garden. ^^ Luther," he 
says, '^cannot speak of God and of holy 
things but with procacity, great ignorance 
of theology, and impropriety." 

Let us now bring John Calvin before the bar 
of public opinion. He is charged with com- 
mitting sins against nature^ for which he 
was branded; he is stripped, and the mark 
is visible ! The charge being sustained, his 
apologists came forward, and with an un- 
blushing impudence, sought to justify him 
on the ground that St. Paul was marked in 
like manner. We will bring forward' as 
witness, Galiffe, himself a Calvinist, and 
author of a work entitled Notices Genealo- 
giques^ published in the city of Gfeneva, the 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 209 

Iiot bed of Calvinism. " Truth compels me 
to say, that John Calvin raised the standard 
of the most ferocious intolerance, of the 
grossest superstitions, and the most impi- 
ous tenets. A terrible apostle, a drinker 
of blood, from whose inquisition nothing 
escaped. During 1558 and 1559 he caused 
one hundred and fourteen judgments to be 
given in criminal matters, etc. !" IS'ext we 
will call Yolmar to the stand. What do 
you know of your hero, Calvin ? '^ I know 
hina to be violent and perverse, but he is 
the man to further our interests !" 

Here comes Calvin's favorite disciple, 
Theodore Beza, whose evidence is as fol- 
lows: ^^ Calvin could never be trained 
either in temperance, in honest habits, or in 
truthfulness ; he was always stuck in the 
mud." Our last witness shall be Bucer, 
who declares, that ^^ Calvin in all truth is a 

mad dog ; he is a bad man Be on thy 

guard, O Christian reader ! against Calvin's 
books." 

BuUinger pitches into Zwinglius, and 
18* 



210 -THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

tells how he was expelled from his parish 
on account of his immoralities. He ac- 
knowledged his vices to a friend, after this 
fashion: '^If you are told that I have 
given in to pride, intemperance, and im- 
purities, believe it, for it is true: I am a 
prey to these vices and many others." Lu- 
ther said of him, that he was '^satanized, 
in-satanized, and over-satanized, and that 
ha would surely be damned." 

The pious Beza, who Protestants would 
have us believe was a model of perfection, 
did not escape the criticism of his co-la- 
borers. Heshussius asks, '^How can any 
one wonder at the incredible impudence of 
this monster, whose lewd and infamous life 
is so well known over all France, through 
his epigrams, worse than cynic ? And still 
in hearing him, you would say, that he was 
a holy man, another Job, or a modern an- 
chorite of the desert, even a greater man 
than Saint John or Saint Paul, he boasts so 
much, on every occasion, of his exUe, his 
labors, his purity, and the wonderful sane- 



THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 211 

tity of his life !" Schlussemberg calls liim 
'^an obscene man, equal to a devil incar- 
nate, kneaded with cunning and impiety, 
who can do naught but belch forth satirical 
blasphemies." 

The Antinomians cried out that good 
works were an impediment to salvation. 
Eaton, a Puritan, taught, that '^believers 
ought not to mourn for sin, because it was 
pardoned before it was committed." Rich- 
ard Hill maintained, that '^even adultery 
and murder do not hurt the pleasant chil- 
dren, but rather work for their good." It 
was also preached, that God sees no sin in 
believers, whatever sin they commit. ''My 
sins might displease God; my person is 
always acceptable to Him. Though I should 
outsin Manasses, I shall not be less a pleas- 
ant child, because God always views me in 
Christ. Hence, in the midst of adulteries, 
murders and incest, he can address me 
with, ' Thou art all fair my love, my unde- 
filed, there is no spot in thee.' It is a most 
pernicious error of the school men to dis- 



212 THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 

tinguish sins according to tlie fact, and not 
according to the person. Thongh I blame 
those who say, 'let ns sin that grace may- 
abound,' yet adultery, incest and murder 
shall, upon the whole, make me holier on 
earth, and merrier in Heaven." For gross 
immoralities among our early Protestants, 
we will refer the reader to Fletcher's work 
on Antinomianism. 

The Reformers themselves abused and 
cursed each other in the vilest manner. 
Luther called Zwinglius a pagan, and said 
he despaired of his salvation. He also 
declared, that Ecolampadius was strangled 
by the devil. Luther wished that Carlostad 
would break his neck, and the latter desired 
to see Luther broken on the wheel. Grotius 
testified, that it was sedition and violence 
that gave rise to the Reformation in Holland. 
Henry VIII, it is said, never spared a man 
in his anger, or a woman in his lust ; and 
the vile Cranmer, himself a libertine, who 
changed his religion seventeen times, 
allowed the beastly monarch the full sway 



THE QUESTIOlSr SOLVED. 213. 

of Ms passions, and nowhere could you 
find a greater scoundrel. The illegitimate 
Elizabeth, mistress of Leicester, and the 
murderer of her own sister, is another fine 
example of Protestant morality. 

Those apostles of perdition, in spite of 
their hjrpocrisy, were obliged to cry out 
against the increasing depravity of the times. 
'^Men," said Luther, '^are now more re- 
vengeful, covetous and licentious, than they 
ever were in the Papacy" ; and in a letter 
to the Christians of Antwerp he writes, 
^Hhere are almost as many creeds as heads. 
There is no simpleton, who, if he happens 
to have a dream, does not believe himself 
visited by God, or become a prophet." 
^ The cruel Calvin lamented, that ^'of the 
many thousands, who, renouncing Popery, 
seemed eager to embrace the gospel, how 
few have amended their lives ! Nay, what 
else did the greater part pretend to, but, by 
shaking off the yoke of superstition, to give 
themselves more liberty to follow all kinds 
of lasciviousness ?" 



214 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

Another of them says, ''they give due 
place to the preaching of the word of God, 
but no amendment of manners is found 
among them ; on the contrary, we see them 
lead an abominable, voluptuous, beastly 
life ; instead of fasts, they spend whole 
days and nights in revelings and drunken- 
ness." And how could it be otherwise, 
when the leaders themselves were actuated 
by motives of the basest kind, and the peo- 
ple but reflected the excesses of their teach- 
ers? John Bockhold, who headed one of 
the sects, had eleven wives at one time, most 
of whom he put to death. Some ran naked 
through the streets, and others actually 
professed the doctrine of continuing in sin 
that grace might abound. Modesty forbids 
me to recount the prominent immoralities 
of the Family of Love. Fletcher says, 
''many persons speaking in the most glori- 
ous manner of Christ and their interest in 
His complete salvation, have been found 
living in the greatest immoralities." 

Frederic the Great says: "If the causes 



THE QUESTIOi^ SOLVED. 215 

of the progress of the Reformation were re- 
duced to simple principles, it would be seen 
that in Germany it was the work of interest ; 
in England that of love, and in France that 
of novelty." 

In truth these miserable men, as a distin- 
guished author declares, '^changed the 
Christian religion into a true pandemonium, 
where all dreams, all half-truths, and all 
errors can disport themselves at ease and 
celebrate their Sabbath." 

In 1838 some of the leading Protestant 
papers of Europe came out with the plain 
declaration that they could not support any 
longer the Reformed churches of Germa- 
ny, Switzerland and France, because they 
'Svere corrupted in what constitutes the es- 
sence of Christianity. The gnawing worms 
of Socinianism and Infidelity, have, in their 
devouring activity, penetrated every part 
of the body, substance and even heart of 
these alien churches." 

The British Review, also, of August, 1838, 
calls what remains of the Reformation, in 



216 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

those conntries, "sb mummy, a solemn 
corpse, which, can no longer walk, nor 
breathe, nor live." 

Poor deluded maniacs, you resemble the 
foolish woman, who set fire to her house to 
free it from cobwebs ! You deliberately fol- 
lowed the inspirations of pride, and blindly 
obeyed the demon of self-interest! You 
broke the sweet yoke which bound you to 
the cross of Christ, to worship at the shrine 
of ambition and false pleasures ! You 
threw away the torch of truth, for the dark 
lantern of error and falsehood, and were 
lost in the mazes of heresy and speculation ! 

How could holiness, virtue or any other 
godlike quality take root and grow under 
such influences and among such a people ? 
The blind credulity, unfortunate aberrations 
of intellect, the deep and damning crimes of 
depraved human nature, never showed with 
such demoniacal splendor, as in those na- 
tions over which the fell spirit of Protestant 
disunion and unbelief hovered. I hesitate 
not to say that the greater part of the evils 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 217 

manifest in Catholic countries and among 
Catholic people, can be traced directly or 
indirectly to the corrupting influences of 
Protestantism. 

Can the records of the Christian Era point 
us to a more wicked or shameful set of lead- 
ers, in any cause, than Henry YIII, Frederic 
of Saxony, Elizabeth of England, Philip, 
Landgrave of Hesse, the Electors and 
Princes of Germany, Frederic I of Denmark, 
Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, the Lords of 
Berne in Switzerland, and the Prince of 
Orange in Holland ? A bloodier, more im- 
pious and cursed set of rascals, never dis- 
graced the fair face of earth, or polluted the 
kind atmosphere of God' s universe. In lust, 
envy, gluttony, anger and every other capi- 
tal sin, history places them in the first 
rank. 

The preachers and disseminators of these 
heretical creeds were, in their hands, like 
potters' clay, to be shaped as fancy dic- 
tated. They shifted their willing dupes at 
pleasure from Lutheranism to Calvinism, 

19 



218 THE QUESTIOI^r SOLVED. 

and back again from Calvinism to Luther- 
anism, or any other ism they chose. Fred- 
eric III changed his subjects from Lnther- 
anism to Calvinism, and made them con- 
fess to a catechism of his own compiling. 
When his son Lonis ascended the throne 
in 1576, he revoked the established laws of 
his father, put down Calvinism, and re- 
stored the Lutheran faith once more. In 
1582 Calvinism was again brought on the 
boards by another prince, and an order was 
issued that any one, not submitting to the 
decisions of Dort, should be banished the 
country. In 1586 John Greorge substituted 
Calvinism for Lutheranism in the province 
of Anhalt Dessau, and made it obligatory 
on all to believe in predestination, under 
penalty of exile. Another prince succeeded 
John, who compelled the people to return 
again, or suffer a like penalty. The same 
transformation was practiced in Brande- 
bourg, by John Sigismund, and also in 
Hesse Cassel in 1614. 
Frederic William, of Prussia, at a fiar 



THE QUESTION" SOLVED. 219 

later date, establislied an amalgamated 
faith in Ms kingdom, placed a veto on the 
progress of the Catholic Chnrch, raised the 
decaying temple of Protestantism to emi- 
nence, and called it the '^Evangelical 
Church of the Khine." He caused to be 
published statutes and ordinances regula- 
ing matters of religion at his pleasure. He 
also directed the mode of worship, pre- 
scribed a kind of Mass, introduced candles, 
incense, crucifixes, etc., etc. But now comes 
the most laughable farce of all ; the Calvin- 
ists could not agree with the Lutherans, 
Rationalists quarreled with both, and forth- 
with a spiritual row began in the Evangeli- 
cal camp. Frederic, failing in polemics, 
yet nothing daunted, thought the best way 
to end the discussion was by an appeal to 
the last argument of kings. He called to 
his aid two hundred thousand muskets, 
and, with this spiritual phalanx of bristling 
bayonets, he very soon forced obedience to 
his decisions, and the famous Agenda was 
recognized as the embodiment of all that 



220 THE QUESTIO^Sr SOLVED. 

was good and wise in religion. There was 
but one village in the realm that showed 
signs of dissatisfaction ; the population of 
Oels closed their houses of worship against 
the preachers of the new organization, but 
a battalion of infantry was sent against 
them. The people showed some resistance, 
when, by a well directed volley, a large 
number of the inhabitants were killed and 
wounded. This put a stop to all opposi- 
tion, and from ten to fourteen bailiffs were 
quartered in each family until the insur- 
gents expressed their unqualified faith in 
the infallibility of his royal highness, Fred- 
eric William. 

In Sweden the same may be said of the 
royal Gustave. He ruled the consciences 
of his subjects with a rod of iron. 

In the face of such testimony, how can 
those hireling preachers have the brazen 
effrontery to step forward and claim for 
Protestant countries all the good morals, 
just views, and liberal enactments ? There 
are some men who delight to excel in im- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 221 

pudence, and our belligerent friend of the 
" two-steepled clmrch." is one of them ; but 
we can tell him that the base servility of his 
king- worshiping sectaries is no more to be 
compared to the noble principles and prac- 
tices of Catholics in all that concerns the 
moral dignity of man, than the flickering 
taper that burned in the sepulchre of Rosi- 
crusius is to the god of day. 

19* 



CHAP. XII. 



MOKALITY OF CATHOLIC AND PBOTESTANT COUNTRIES — INTEMPEB. 
ANCE — SIR FRANCIS HEAD COMPLIMENTS IRELAND — FEARFUIi 
LIST OF SPURIOUS BIRTHS IN PROTESTANT COUNTRIES — REV. 
DR. HALLEY'S opinion OF IMMORALITY AND UNBELIEF IN GE- 
NEVA — MR. LAING'S STATISTICS — CONTRAST BETWEEN CATHOLIC 
AND PROTESTANT CANTONS OF SWITZERLAND — NO RESTRAINT 
AMONG PROTESTANT YOUTH — CRIME ON THE INCREASE — FOETI- 
CIDE AND INFANTICIDE — DIVORCE LAWS — IMMORALITIES IN AND 
AROUND THE HALLS OF LEGISLATION — CLERICAL VILLAINS OF 
THE PROTESTANT STRIPE — PROTESTANT CUPIDITY — THE DUTCH 
THE ONLY PEOPLE CAPABLE OF TRAMPLING ON THE CROSS IN 
THE PORTS OF JAPAN — THE HOLLOWNESS OF PROTESTANT PIETY 
— PREDICTIONS OF PROTESTANTS — SOME HOPE OF DR. CLARK'S 
CONVERSION. 



WHEN Catholic countries are accused of 
being more prolific in crime than Prot- 
estant ones, we take it that onr accusers do 
not believe it themselves ; they are actuated 
more from a spirit of malice and jealousy 
than otherwise ; or, to be more charitable, 
if any of them really think they are in the 
right, I would earnestly request them to 
study facts, and not to be deluded by their 
religious teachers, whose chief aim is to 
deceive. 

Let us take intemperance for example, 
and we shall find that this degrading vice is 
much more common in Protestant than in 



THE QUESTION SOLYED. 223 

Catholic nations. In England, Holland, 
Sweden, Scotland, Denmark, and the United 
States, it is very common ; while in France, 
Italy, Spain, Portugal, and most Catholic 
countries, it is very rare. In London alone, 
there is more drunkenness than in all the 
Catiolic cities of Europe. According to a 
parliamentary report made to the House of 
Commons, a few years ago, the appalling 
fact was recorded, that twelve thousand 
females roamed the streets of London as 
notorious public drunkards. In England, 
thirty-two million gallons of spirituous 
liquors are used annually, besides immense 
quantities of wine and malt liquors. 

There is more whisky used in Scotland, 
in proportion to the population, than in any 
other country in Europe. It is estimated 
that, in Glasgow alone, thirty thousand of 
its citizens go to bed drunk every Saturday 
night. 

Notwithstanding the misery and wretch- 
edness that Protestant rule entails upon 
Catholic Ireland, and that such a condition 



324 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

is favorable to the vice of intemperance, it 
is remarkable how the poor Irish, as a clasps, 
keep themselves as free from drunkenness 
as they do, in their native country. Sir 
Francis Head, who was once Goveraor- 
General of Canada, wrote a book, which he 
entitled, '^ Two weeks in Irela;iid." He re- 
lates, in that little work, that he expected 
to find, there, terrible exhibitions of the vice 
of intemperance ; bnt he was agreeably dis- 
appointed ; for he affirms, that, in his tour 
through the country, he saw but two 
drunken men. It is to be deeply regretted 
that they do not observe the same modera- 
tion in the land of their adoption ; but there 
are many excuses to be made in their favor. 
They are a sociable, warm-hearted people, 
given to hospitality, and brimful of friend- 
ship and hilarity, so that it is not difllcult 
to bring them to an intimate acquaintance 
with the glass : besides, they are a hard- 
working class, and fatigue and exhaustion 
too often prostrate their sturdy physical 
constitutions ; and, as alcoholic stimulants 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 225 

are the commonest and easiest to be pro- 
cured, of all the exciting agents calculated 
to restore the debilitated system, it is not 
at all strange that these poor sons of toil 
should indulge occasionally, and, from 
frequent practice, acquire the habit of 
taking too much. Again, they are con- 
tinually coming in contact with friends 
of their youth, from the far-off land of 
their nativity, whom they may not have 
seen for many, many years ; and, as it has 
been the custom, from time immemorial, 
when long parted friends do meet, to 
bring into requisition the social glass, the 
poor Irishman, situated as he is in a foreign 
land, with temptations all around him, must 
have more than the ordinary amount of self- 
denial to resist. 

But he is not alone in this practice of 
drinking a drop too much ; other nationali- 
ties are not far behind him, and in many 
cases outstrip him. The Yankee drinks N^ew 
England rum and old rye until he becomes 
as blind as a bat, then pokes himself away 



226 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

in some nook or corner until he gets sober. 
The Englishman guzzles his gin and '^hold 
hale" until he is as full as a leech, drops 
himself away in his bed or his chair to sleep 
it all away, and awakens only to go at it 
again. The Dutchman is not far behind ; he 
will pitch into his lager and Rhine wine until 
he makes a beast of himself, and so with all 
the rest. Each has his favorite intoxicating 
beverage — from old Aunt Sarah's bottle of 
peppermint to the Congressman's cham- 
pagne. 

The most noticeable of all is the compari- 
son of the virtue of chastity. Sweden, which 
is almost entirely Protestant, is the most 
immoral country in all Europe ; and Stock- 
holm, its capital, is the most immoral city 
in the whole world. The number of persons 
convicted of heinous crimes and beastly 
practices in that nation, in 1837, according 
to Mr. Laing's report, was twenty-one thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty- six, in a popu- 
lation of three million ; and in 1836, one to 
one hundred and thirty-four of the whole 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 227 

number were convicted for the like crimes, 
being a still greater proportion. The pro- 
portion of illegitimate births in that thor- 
oughly Protestant country is as one to 
fourteen, and in Stockholm one to one and 
a half. The Swedish consul at London 
denied Mr. Laing's statements, w^hen the 
latter gentleman proved beyond a doubt 
that his figures were correct. The number 
of divorces in 1838 were one hundred and 
forty- seven ; of suicides, one hundred and 
seventy-two. In the same year, in Stock- 
holm, out of two thousand seven hundred 
and fourteen children born there, one thou- 
sand one hundred and thirty-seven were 
illegitimate. When we take into con- 
sideration the position of Sweden on the 
map of Europe, with no influx of strangers, 
no large manufacturing establishments, the 
majority of the population being engaged in 
agriculture, and having a well-constructed 
church establishment, being amply provided 
with Sunday schools and Bibles, we are at 



228 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

a loss to know the cause of tMs demoraliza- 
tion. Will Dr. Clark please inform ns ? 

England comes next in the scale of moral 
degradation. The number convicted of crime 
on an average, yearly, is in the ratio of one 
to nine hundred and sixty of the whole 
population. When Bible societies were first 
organized in England, the Mecca whence 
Dr. Clark turns his eyes in adoration, the 
annual receipts footed up the large sum of 
five hundred thousand dollars ; and the 
prediction was that depravity would wing 
its way to Catholic countries, and England 
would become the New Jerusalem. But 
mark the sequel ! By a return made to the 
House of Commons, June 5th, 1818, it was 
shown that, as the Bible Society progressed, 
the amount of crime increased fourfold. 

There were committed for trial in 1805, 4,605 

" " " 1817, 18,932 

There were sentenced to be hung in 1805, 350 

« '' " 1817, 1,302 

Behold your Biblical infiuence, great doctor ! 
London comes next in crime to Stockholm. 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 239 

There are over eighty thorisand abandoned 
females in that city, besides a large number 
of private women of easy or doubtful virtue ; 
and more than two hundred schools where 
boys and girls are trained to be skillful 
thieves and pickpockets. 

In English poor-houses there were sixty- 
six thousand illegitimate births to ninety- 
four thousand legitimate ; in Wales, of five 
thousand seven hundred and forty- seven 
births, three thousand and seventy were 
illegitimate, and in Scotland seven in every 
ten are illegitimate. 

In Ireland the proportion of the same class 
is very small ; in the Catholic province of 
Munster it is not one in twenty. 

Catholic Naples, toward which our Rev- 
erend lecturer exhibited not a little acri- 
mony, shows in the above regard but one 
hundred and thirty to fifteen thousand. 
Prom whom did you get your information, 
wonderful Dr. Clark ? 

Of Prussian morality, our candid Presby- 
terian paints a most fearful picture. Vices, 

20 



230 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

which in Catholic countries would be looked 
upon as most disgraceful, would excite no 
surprise in that land of public schools and 
Bible-teaching. Such crimes in Prussia, in 
the words of Mr. Laing, are called "youth- 
ful indiscretions!" In another place he 
affirms that ''the Prussians,, morally, are 
slaves of enslaved minds." Every thing is 
compulsory there, not only in education 
but religion also — the freedom of the will is 
entirely abrogated ; the moral training of 
the child is taken out of the hands of the 
parents by state authority, and it follows 
that not only filial affection is destroyed, 
but the father and mother are positively de- 
graded. 

The same author gives us another picture 
of the religious state of Geneva, which sur- 
passes any thing that we have ever heard 
or read of. ''Geneva, the seat and center 
of Calvinism, the fountain head from which 
the pure and living waters of our Scottish 
Zion flow . . . has fallen lower from 
her original doctrine and practice than ever 



THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 231 

Rome fell. Rome has still superstition; 
Geneva has not even the semblance of relig- 
ion ! " He then tells of picnics, ball-rooms, 
concert saloons, billiards, skittles, the shout, 
and the shots of the rifle clubs, to be seen 
and heard everywhere on the Sunday and 
during the hours set apart for religious 
worship by all Christian communities. He 
then gives a pitiful description of the ser- 
vices held in the old church in which the 
apostle of predestination once held forth. 
The congregation consisted of a few females 
and less than two dozen of very old men ; 
and the sermon he characterizes as a disser- 
tation which might with more propriety 
have been delivered the evening before at a 
meeting of some scientific body. The same 
author in commenting on the devotional 
aspect of the audience says, the ''male por- 
tion of the congregation kept their hats on 
during the entire sermon." 

The Rev. Dr. Halley of this city (com- 
pared to whom Rufus W. Clark, D. D., is 
but a tyro in literature, and who, by the 



232 THE QUESTI02!T SOLVED. 

way, is far from being a bigot, if we are to 
judge from Ms interesting letters to tlie 
Argus during his tour througli Europe in 
the summer of 1868), writes of Gfeneva as 
follows: ^^We visited tlie Cathedral and 
had the privilege to stand in the pulpit once 
occupied by the illustrious Calvin. It 
grieves us to learn that this city has wofully 
swerved from her past faith, that Rational- 
ism and Infidelity have to a great extent 
supplanted the pure doctrines of Christian- 
ity, and that, at one time the bulwark of the 
truth and the resort of illustrious refugees 
from all parts of Europe, it is now pervaded 
with latitudinarianism and heresy." 

Of the two Cantons which foi:m the Swiss 
Confederation, one is Catholic, the other 
Protestant; and every honest and intelli- 
gent traveler bears testimony to the supe- 
riority of the former over the latter, for 
morality and religion. It is true, that the 
Protestant Canton is the wealthiest, but this 
can be easily accounted for. The richest 
soil, the best water privileges, the best roads 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 233 

and trading places, are situated in the lower 
half of Switzerland, and besides, the people 
are more selfish and worldly minded than 
in the upper Canton, which is mountainous 
and barren for the most part : so that Prot- 
estantism has no more to do with the ap- 
parent prosperous condition of the beautiful 
valleys of Switzerland than the religion 
of the Anthropophagi of Polynesia. Mr. 
Laing says: '^The religious influence is at 
its minimum in Protestant, and at its max- 
imum in Catholic, Switzerland." 

Italy has been the mad dog of Europe, 
with Protestant writers and speakers, for 
three hundred years ; in their estimation 
she should be blotted from the map of the 
world. Italians may have their vices (for 
what people have not ?) but if we place them 
side by side with the Protestant population 
of England (and I might come a little nearer 
home, I think) in looks, manners, intel- 
ligence, and moral worth, they will hold 
their own. You will see more drunkenness 
and quarreling, hear more blasphemy and 
20* 



234: THE QUESTIOlNr SOLVED. 

foul language in one street, and in one day, 
in an Englisli or American city, than you 
see or liear in all the Catholic towns of 
Europe in an age. There is a native polite- 
ness among many of those old peoples which 
is to be attributed to Catholic teaching. 

Ask an Englishman to show you the way 
to Cheapside in London, and if he conde- 
scends to answer you at all, he will turn 
around gruffly and tell you, ''away down 
that way," and pass on ; a Yankee will ask 
you ''where you came from, where you are 
going to, and what is your business ;" but 
ask a Frenchman or an Italian to do you 
the same favor, and he wUl answer you 
with a smile, and take the greatest pains 
to set you right. I have never known a 
truly Christian man, who was not also a 
polite man. 

Take the Irish as a class, whom our Prot- 
estant friends delight in calling "low," 
"vulgar," and "uncivilized," and they pos- 
sess a fineness of feeling, and a delicacy of 
expression that all travelers admire. Let 



THE QUESTIOJSr SOLVED. 836 

two strangers meet on the highway in Ire- 
land, and they will salute each other with 
some Christian expression, snch as ^'God 
save you, sir!'' ^'Grod save you kindly!" 
and then pass along, each his own way. In 
some other countries, you meet a man and 
he will eye you with suspicion, pull down 
his brows with an ill-natured expression, as 
if he would like to do you bodily harm. 
The wicked and bad thought seems to be 
always uppermost with some people. See 
what a back-biting, calumniating, jealous, 
and begrudging class you will find in mostly 
all our communities, and church members 
are not the least exempt from the charge, 
their ministers setting the example. Ask 
that little barefooted boy who trudges along 
the road side, in one of the most primitive 
parts of Ireland, a question, and he will an- 
swer, ^^ Yes, sir," or "l^o, sir," with perfect 
respect ; ask one of our American youths, 
and he wiU look at you with perfect indif- 
ference, and reply, '^Well, I don't know," 
or " Guess so," and the like ; and if you 



236 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

shonld chance to rebuke him for his want 
of good manners, ten chances to one, he 
will swear at you, or shake his fist in your 
face. Such rude dispositions are not con- 
fined to any one class either ; they are as 
often found among the children of our fash- 
ionable circles, as in those of their poorer 
neighbors. 

A mixing up of the youth of both sexes, 
with very little restraint, is not only unwar- 
ranted but dangerous ; nevertheless it is very 
common in Protestant countries. A little 
lad, recently emerged from petticoats, and 
with hardly an idea beyond a game of mar- 
bles, will, with the assurance of a full grown 
man, call to see a young miss in her best 
bib and tucker. The friends of each call it 
^'cunning," and the parents will even allow 
considerable familiarity, and oftentimes en- 
courage this sort of baby courtship, which, 
to say the least, is not always productive of 
sound morality. 

Protestant ministers are forever harping 
on the vices and ignorance of Catholic chil- 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 237 

dren ; and it is contemptibly mean in them 
to stuff the minds of their Sunday School 
classes, as they are in the habit of doing, 
with anecdotes and lying stories concerning 
them. In this they commit a double sin — 
by doing a great and scandalous injury to 
the one party, and outrageously deceiving 
the other. We will put the question to any 
fair, unprejudiced traveler, if he has ever, 
in his journeyings through Catholic nations, 
found ruder children than he has seen here 
in these United States, notwithstanding our 
boasted public instruction and plentiful sup- 
ply of Bibles and Sunday Schools ? 

I would be safe in saying that a girl of 
twelve years of age, in a Protestant school, 
knows more about matters pertaining to her 
constitution than a Catholic woman of sixty 
in any other country. How came she with 
this kind of knowledge ? Let Dr. Clark an- 
swer ! A few years ago I met an intelligent 
farmer, who in the course of conversation 
informed me that the country around where 
he resided was flooded with a certain species 



238 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 

of literature, immoral and debasing in its 
influences, and which the youth of both 
sexes sought with avidity ; that most of the 
young men and women had a copy hid away 
in their trunks ! 

There was a filthy publication started in 
I^ew York a few years since, which had a 
wide circulation, not only among the de- 
praved, but was liberally patronized by 
what is called the ^^ better class" — even by 
many who stood high in their respective 
churches, as was shown by the arrest of the 
proprietor and seizure of the books of the 

concern. I was visiting a friend in W , 

Connecticut, at the time, and well do I re- 
member the commotion made in that city 
of evangelical purity^ when the agent lo- 
cated there had his books confiscated. The 
number of copies sold in that little city 
alone was fearful to contemplate ; and to 
the credit of the Catholic population, who 
form nearly half, not a single Catholic name 
was found on the list of the ruffian's sub- 
scribers. In countries where Catholicism 



THE QUESTIOiT SOLVED. SS9 

predominates, yon will not find a degrading 
publication, unless by stealth. If your wife 
or daughter take np the morning paper, 
their eyes will not fall upon '^personals," 
or other degrading advertisements. There 
may be a city like Paris, for example, where 
Protestantism and Infidelity form a large 
proportion ; there you may find obscene and 
impure literature; but thank God for the 
kind care and watchfulness of His Holy 
Church, that protects her children from these 
seducting and vile infiuences. 

What sort of an opinion would a stranger 
form of the moral condition of this Eepub- 
lic, who should read the columns of our 
daily and weekly papers ? What a fearful 
list of murders, thefts, highway robberies, 
arson, defalcations, breaches of trust, big- 
amy, seduction, drunkenness, gambling, 
suicide, the common practice of foeticide and 
infanticide, the unhallowed laws of divorce, 
etc., etc. Protestantism is powerless to stop 
this surging tide of vice which sweeps over 
the land. The Ca4)holic Church, of all others, 



240 THE QUESTIOIT SOLVED. 

stands pre-eminent in checking this overflow 
of sin and folly ; and, because she inter- 
poses a barrier, the vampires of our schools 
of modern progress accuse her of crimes of 
which she is not guilty, and lay plans for 
her destruction, by placing her in a false 
light before the people. They aim to suck 
out the life blood of her constitution, in 
order to paralyze her efforts for good. 
Strange and reckless infatuation! Will 
error and deceit forever strive with truth 
and holiness ! 

Behold what pictures are drawn of the 
scenes in and around the halls of legisla- 
tion, even the Congress of the United States ! 
Hear the vile abuse, the bandying of foul 
epithets, the charges and counter-charges 
of the representatives of the people against 
each other ! 

See the long list of clerical mllains^ of 
the Protestant stripe, in every State in the 
Union, who have been charged and found 
guilty of all manner of crime ; and then 
say that Protestanism is in the odor of 



THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 241 

sanctity. Whenever I meet a Protestant 
minister I sliudder ; for faith tells me that 
he is an ambassador of the evil one ; a kid- 
naper of souls, and a traitor to the canse 
of Christ and the everlasting welfare of 
mankind. Shame on the lazy pack ! They 
eat the bread of idleness, and fatten on the 
carcass of a nondescript and dead faith. 
The execration of Moses is already upon 
them, for he hath said, " Cursed be he that 
maketh the blind to wander out of the way. 
And all the people shall say. Amen ! " 

But Dr. Clark will have it, that all this 
depravity may be cured by the dissemina- 
tion of Bibles and lying tracts, without 
which, we will all go to Hong Kong. He 
cites several examples of the power which 
the Bible wields against the lawless and the 
depraved, particularly the class called ''jail- 
birds." He used up considerable ''blar- 
ney" on two certain jailers, one of whom 
resided in the blessed State of Connecticut, 
and the other in the goodly city of Albany. 
These gentlemen informed him that they 
21 



243 THE QUESTION SOLVED. 

could not govern a prison without Bible aid. 
We commend tliem for every effort they 
make to reform the offender ; but, when 
they assert their inability to control a house 
of correction without Biblical assistance, 
we pronounce it all gammon. It is the iron 
door and great key, the musket and the 
strong inclosure that do the business ; tact 
and good judgment being, of course, indis- 
pensable. We will now hear the evidence 
of another Protestant, Mr. Joseph Kean, 
Warden of the penitentiary on BlackwelP s 
Island for the past twenty years. He told 
me, personally, that he was always on the 
alert for the convict who, with a sanctimo- 
nious face, asked him for a Bible. He 
declared that such fellows were the biggest 
scoundrels, and he would not allow them 
any privileges. 

This distribution of Bibles, which our wise 
doctor advocates, together with the common 
license of private interpretation, is the iden- 
tical rock that split the craft of Protestant- 
ism in twain, shattered all her timbers, and 



THE QUESTIOl^ SOLVED. 243 

left the wreck floating and floundering on 
the seething waters of doubt and disunion ; 
and there she will remain, the drift-wood 
of Christianity, until she is lost in oblivion. 
Our neighbor attributes every enterprise 
in art, science, trade, and commerce, to the 
influence of the Bible. As the revelation 
of God to man, the history of the birth and 
establishment of Christianity, and the record 
of the great drama enacted on the hill of 
Calvary, it is certainly a pearl of great 
price ; but when it is made subservient to 
the sordid interests of man, it becomes a 
curse rather than a blessing, because, by its 
aid, the truth of Grod is turned into a lie. 
How often have I seen men with '^ Bible," 
^' Bible," on the end of their tongues, play 
the role of the false disciple ? O, ye emis- 
saries of Satan, I know you well ! Your 
cupidity has no bounds ! Dr. Milner ex- 
pressed the Protestant idea to a dot, when 
he said, ^^The temporal interest of their 
religion is the ruling principle of their 
morality." 



244 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

There is not, perhaps, another instance in 
the category of meanness, ingratitude and 
perfidy, since the day that Iscariot betrayed 
his blessed Master, equal to that of the 
venal Dutch merchants in the harbors of 
Japan. After the Catholic missionaries had 
been butchered, their churches destroyed, 
and the homes of their adherents made deso- 
late, the ports of that barbarous nation were 
closed against all foreigners except the Chi- 
nese, unless they complied with the Empe- 
ror' s conditions, the chief feature of which 
was, that all hailing from Christian nations 
should trample on the cross. N^one were 
found base enough to comply with such a 
heathenish demand, until the Hollanders 
came along, when, Judas like, they not only 
trampled on the glorious emblem of man' s 
salvation, but denied having any thing in 
common with Christians, and thus suc- 
ceeded in selling their God for a cargo of 
merchandise. 

I am very suspicious, my dear doctor, that 
much of this hub-bub about the ^'schools," 



THE QUESTION SOLVED. 245 

and great love for the Bible is put on; it 
may be a mercenary trick after all. I have 
seen men like you before, who, notwith- 
standing their high pretensions, turned out 
to be regular humbugs ; and not a few, who 
had never studied the religious question 
beyond the length of their own tether. I 
remember to have seen and heard of such 
fellows in the old country when I was 
a little boy, and not one of them ever 
amounted to a row of pins. There were a 
few who started out with the ^'no-popery" 
cry, who had the honesty and manliness to 
renounce their errors, after being set right 
by superior minds, and became humble 
pupils in the school of Christ. 

Dr. Cummings, of London, used to be 
the great Exeter Hall champion, but the 
poor fellow became crazy. He went from 
one subject to another, mixing up one 
theory with the next, until his most inti- 
mate friends could not tell what he was 
driving at. He then became a prophet, and 
set the time, not only for the downfall of the 
21* 



246 THE QUESTIOK SOLVED. 

^^man of sin, "but the destruction of the 
world, which was to have taken place in 1849. 
Twenty summers have come and gone since 
then, and old mother earth is as dignified 
as ever, hale and hearty; Pius IX is far 
more secure in the chair of Peter than he 
was then, and the last that I heard of 
Cummings he was making a goose of him- 
self writing letters to the Pope. 

I recollect another young man, full of 
zeal for the Protestant cause, and as elo- 
quent and commanding as Wendell Phillips 
ever was. He fancied himself especially 
called to deal a fatal blow to the papacy, 
and created a terrible excitement in and 
around Birmingham. He lectured, wrote 
and preached with the vehemence and im- 
petuosity of a Luther; but what was the 
result, think you ? Grod saw that he started 
out with a candid mind and an honest 
heart, and, like St. Paul, he was arrested 
in his course. The light of truth beamed 
upon him ; he at once discovered his error, 
went straightway to the venerable Bishop 
of Birmingham, cast himself in humility at 



THE QUESTIO]Sr SOLVED. 247 

the feet of the prelate, and begged to be 
received into the bosom of that Church he 
had so bitterly opposed. With the meek- 
ness of a little child he humbled himself at 
the foot of the cross, sought forgiveness for 
the evil he had done, and the once brave 
and eloquent John Mason did penance in a 
cloister the rest of his life. 

Who knows, Doctor, but you might one 
of these days go and do likewise? 'Tis 
true, that the longer a man keeps on in his 
sins, the harder it is for him to renounce 
them ; but still we have the assurance, that 

" While tlie lamp liolds out to burn 
• The vilest sinner may return." 

Pray to God, in the sincerity of your heart, 
that the scales of error may fall from your 
sinful eyes, so that you may see the pure 
light of the gospel, and do penance for 
your misspent life. Think, oh think, poor 
deluded man, of the number of souls you 
have been the means of sending to that 
eternity of sorrow, where the worm dieth 
not and where the fire is never quenched ! 



NOTE. 

On the eve of going to press, I was asked if I had seen 
Dr. Clark's book ; to which I replied in the negative. A 
day or two after a gentleman presented me with a copy, 
bearing the name of " The Question of the Hour," which 
caused me to change my title-page to The Question Solved. 
Although his book is sufficiently vindictive, it is not a 
faithful copy of his lectures, for they were meaner still ; 
besides, he delivered other anti-Catholic harangues before 
and after he discussed " The Bible and the School Fund," 
so that I am obliged to answer him in a general way. He 
did not confine himself to the School Question alone ; he 
wandered all over the earth, from China to Hindostan, 
from Italy to England, from North to South America, so 
that it would be no small matter to pursue him in his airy 
flights and crooked ways ; for, as the Rev. Dr. Lord, Presi- 
dent of Dartmouth College, once said, " error and falsehood 
would run around the world while St. Paul would be get- 
ting his boots on." 

If any should consider me harsh in dealing with these 
questions, it is Dr. Clark's fault ; he set the example. He 
has been so thoroughly educated in the school of religious 
hate, that it is impossible for him to say a kind word of any 
one differing from him, particularly if he had the least sus- 
picion that the individual stood higher in the moral scale 
than himself. The Doctor has such an extravagant opin- 
ion of his own capacity for every thing great and good in 
the world, that nobody else has a chance to come in for a 
slice. He swells out to such a degree, in his boasting, that 
he fancies that he could not only swallow Jonah but the 
whale too. 

Now, if like David I have put the stone of invincible 
truth into my sling, and succeeded in hitting this Protest- 
ant Goliath on his face of brass, I shall feel amply repaid 
for this small effort in the cause of religious progress. 



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